


New Yellow Flash

by Skyrimosity



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Friendship, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pairing undecided, Politics, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2020-10-05 08:27:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 61,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20485859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyrimosity/pseuds/Skyrimosity
Summary: Naruto is able to learn the incredibly difficult Hiraishin Jutsu during a training trip to Mount Myoboku, and he uses this in his fight against Pain. What consequences will the return of this legendary yet infamous technique have, however, on the Shinobi World as a whole? Naruto has his work cut out for him if he is going to keep his promises to those he cares about. (Slight AU in which Obito died young and Nagato was the true leader of Akatsuki yet events unfolded as-is canon.)





	1. The Hero of the Leaf

Naruto struggled through the forest, barely able to stay on top of his feet. He had just learned the jutsu, and he knew that he had not ironed out all of the kinks, but the amount of chakra he exhausted using it was simply insane. Additionally, having clones use the technique did not really help his chakra stores any. Oh well; he would have time to work out everything in the future. It was over now, though. Pein was defeated, he had talked with Nagato. And he was tired. So, so tired.

Next thing he knew, he was no longer on his own two feet. He was pretty sure he had fallen forward on accident, finally succumbing to the exhaustion. He really was not sure if he had ever been this tired without passing out before, though was certain he would remember it if he had been. Looking at whomever he had fallen upon, he saw wild silver hair. "Kakashi-sensei?" he asked, his voice sounding weak.

"Yo, Naruto. You did it." Naruto nodded into the man's back, for the first time a smile on his face. "I'm proud of you." There was something about the sincerity of Kakashi's voice that made the words sound more important than they ever had before, and Naruto felt like jumping up and down. If only he had the energy.

"Thank you, sensei."

"Tell me, Naruto. I was incapacitated during the fight. You know, lost on the road of life." Naruto did not need to be told what that meant. He had noticed Kakashi's absence during the intense showdown in the crater, and he felt certain that the man had died because it seemed impossible he would have missed the fight for any other reason, but there simply had not been time to think about it. He had to win the fight, had to confront Nagato. There was no other option. In his mind, he was certain of only one thing during the encounter: either Pein was defeated, or he would die. He would not let himself be captured. "How did you defeat him?"

"I-I did it sensei. I learned it. The only thing I have connecting me to my father. The Hiraishin." It was the most excruciating training of his life. He had not known it then, but throughout his training trip Jiraiya was teaching him Fuinjutsu that would help him to understand and control the Hiraishin. It had seemed so stupid at the time, but if Jiraiya were still alive, Naruto was sure that he would never doubt the Toad Sage again. He had wanted Jiraiya to teach him cool jutsu instead, or maybe even how to be a Sage, but the man made him learn more about fuinjutsu and said that the Kyuubi would probably make sage training impossible. When Jiraiya died, Tsunade finally told him. About his father, the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze. And the completed version of the Hiraishin, sealed away beneath the floorboards of the Hokage's desk.

At times, it had seemed impossible. The scroll was the largest Naruto had ever seen for one jutsu, and he had to understand every kanji to even start unraveling it. Tsunade suggested he study the jutsu at Mount Myoboku, in order to not be discovered and to have the maximum amount of peace. She had said he would be summoned if needed. With nothing else to do, he dedicated himself to mastering the technique which made his father one of the most feared shinobi in the entire world. The perfect space-time ninjutsu.

The difficulty of learning the Hiraishin did not necessarily lie in understanding it. Sure, there was a lot to it, the kanji weaving a tale of a jutsu that bordered the edge of possible and impossible. The amount of chakra theory that was poured into creating the jutsu was astounding to Naruto; he had never really though the Second Hokage was all that cool back in the Academy but his mind changed a bit on that now. The basic concept of the Hiraishin, however, was simple enough: using fuinjutsu to create a temporary tear in-between space and time, and forcing your chakra through the tear resulting in the user being carried through it, giving the effect of teleportation in an instant. This required a bit of energy at both ends, and while it should be nearly zero if done perfectly, he was still forcing the connection with his own chakra and burning through reserves.

The true difficulty of the Hiraishin was in re-creation. His father had famously used tri-pronged kunai with only a few simple kanji written on them in order to use the Hiraishin; he wasn't sure if the Second did the same. A few kanji written on a piece of paper was a far cry from the enormous scroll, so that meant Naruto needed to find a way to shorten the formula. Unfortunately for him, the jutsu had numerous blood kanji, meaning that the final product would be different for each individual. Luckily, at least, a few of the kunai were stored with the scroll to help guide him, at least a bit.

It took four days for him to even get through an initial in-depth reading of the scroll, with the toad elders forcing him to take breaks to eat and sleep. After that, he began to use shadow clones in order to hasten up the process. He would assign sections for the clones to work on then make sure that they dismissed in a certain order so that he would remember the jutsu as it was written instead of having memories of unrelated chunks of kanji. Even with this help, the Hiraishin proved a harsh beast to tame.

When Naruto felt he had a good understanding of the Hiraishin scroll, it became time to shorten it. He had a plentiful amount of kunai and a ton of paper for the task and created shadow clones to allow multiple avenues to be explored at once. Even then, it was incredibly difficult. Using even a hundred clones the task was the most frustrating concept he had ever attempted to wrap his mind around. How could it even be possible to reduce a scroll containing a countless amount of kanji into a simple four to five symbol formula?

It took two weeks, and an immeasurable amount of work when considering the number of clones, before Naruto produced a formula that he could be only about twenty-five percent confident would work. It was the best he could do, however, so he left only a few clones to further ponder the jutsu and the shortened formula while he went to a secluded area. Attempting to actually use the Hiraishin was not something he could power through with a ton of clones; he needed to sit still and feel for the tear in space-time combined with the feeling of his chakra in the handle of the kunai.

After a few days, he had still felt nothing and his clones had not made any advance. Naruto was convinced, by this point, that the formula had to work. In order to increase the chances of feeling the kunai's chakra through the space-time tear, he began to excrete his own chakra. At first, it seemed useless. At some point, however, Naruto felt it; the pulse of chakra from the handle of the kunai. It was faint, incredibly so, and obviously there was work to do since the object was only sitting a foot or two away from him, but it was a major breakthrough.

As it turned out, once he sensed the kunai the first time, it got easier to feel with every attempt. Whenever he wanted to feel it, he could easily. And whenever he wanted to ignore it, it would stop. Apparently, sensing the kunai was more of a mental skill. Having gotten that down, the next step was simple, at least theoretically: teleportation. Or, as the case may be, forcing his chakra to flow through a tear in space-time which would allow him to transport himself from one location to another in the blink of an eye. If that was not teleportation, however, he was certain it was as close as was possible through the use of jutsu.

Getting his chakra to transport him was probably the easiest part of learning the jutsu, and even then, it took ten hours. It was obvious that the Nidaime designed the jutsu in order to make the process as seamless as possible when compared to the rest of the learning procedure. All he really had to do was focus on the kunai and allow his chakra to connect to the point and move him. After he had managed to teleport a few times, however, he realized that he needed to practice orienting himself when he came out of the kunai. From what he had heard, his father could pop up in any direction he wanted including even a few feet away.

He spent a few more days like this, allowing himself to practice the technique and learn some of its nuances before committing to advancing much further. Even in the relatively short amount of time he was working on the technique, at least compared to the many years his father had spent perfecting it, it began to be second nature to feel the kunai's chakra. When he was able to change his stance mid-transport, he decided to move on. Sure, he still could only pop up within a few inches of the kunai, but he decided to work on that later.

Somehow, after all of the careful training he had done up to that point, he allowed himself to get a bit arrogant and carried away. He had his clones create approximately one-hundred sealed kunai and place them all throughout the mountain. It had never occurred to him that he should not go from practicing on one kunai to practicing with so many, however, and as he began to search out the kunais chakra, he became overloaded and passed out. When he woke up, he had one hell of a headache.

The next time he tried, he was less overwhelmed and managed to stay conscious. He began to feel out the chakra when he asked a question that had never occurred to him. Not a single person had ever indicated he was a sensor, and neither had his own experiences. So, how was it that he could feel the chakra from the kunai? After pondering the thought for a few hours, knowing somehow that it would be important for something, he came to a conclusion: There was something about the kanji formula that allowed for the chakra from the kanji to leak into the space-time rift and create a unique path back to him, which he then retraced when he used his chakra to 'teleport" between the kunai. It was at this point that Naruto realized, truly, that the Second Hokage and his father were both geniuses of chakra theory.

It took a few days worth of practice, but eventually, he was able to feel all of the kunais individual chakra and teleport quickly to them. It was then that Naruto realized yet another aspect of the jutsu: the space-time rift worked in such a way that, when he sensed the chakra from the kunai, he could feel the distance somehow. After more hours of practice, he guessed that the chakra path deteriorated on its way through the rift back to him, resulting in each individual chakra path having a different strength that correlated to distance. This meant that, theoretically, there was a distance wherein the path would not be strong enough to reach back to him. He was getting ready to test this theory when Ma told him that he needed to go back to Konoha.

"Dad was a real genius, wasn't he?" he asked to Kakashi, who simply scoffed.

"Yes, he was. We could be on a mission, rain pouring down on our tent, lightning striking within a mile, he'd work on learning or creating some jutsu." Naruto allowed himself a smile, thinking of the man that he had never met and never would meet. Yet somehow, with the Hiraishin, it felt like part of his father was there with him now. "But don't sell yourself short, Naruto. Only two men have ever learned Hiraishin and they've both become Hokage. I still don't know how sensei ever convinced Sandaime-sama to let him learn the Hiraishin in the first place. It's the only item with a Triple S ranking so you guess they don't just hand it out freely. You'll have to show me it soon. Promise?"

"Promise." Naruto allowed his head to rest gently on Kakashi's back as they went through the forest, a silence between the two of them. There was so much work to be done with the jutsu still, so many ways he could develop his skill further. After all, compared to the feats boasted by his father, he was merely a novice in usage. He decided, however, that maybe he'd give it a break for a day or two; surely he had earned one. Maybe get Kakashi to tell him stories about his old man.

Soon enough, they got back to the village, where Naruto was surprised to see an enormous crowd ready to greet them. "Our hero has returned!" came a loud shout from the crowd as numerous people began to run toward him. He got off Kakashi's back, feeling well enough to finally support his own weight. Kakashi simply took a step back, however. Before he knew it, there were children hugging him, tears in their eyes, thanking him for saving their families. He stood still, shocked. It felt so strange to him, he simply could not react.

"The Hero of the Leaf!"

"Naruto returned to us!"

"Our savior!"

Numerous shouts came from the crowd, as they continued moving toward him. It felt surreal. They were talking… about him? It seemed too good to be true. Almost like something from a dream. He couldn't move his body at all, too dazed by the situation. He was startled back to life when Sakura ran toward him.

"Naruto!" she said, wrapping him in a tight hug. He could tell that she was crying, and from the fact that her hug was not crushing his will to live, exhausted as well. He willed his body to return the gesture, patting her on the back, as the woman who was one of the strongest people he knew cried into his chest.

"A-are you okay Sakura-chan?" He didn't know what to say; this was an entirely new experience to him. The pinkette looked up at him, eyes red.

"Am I okay? I just – you – so many people died. He was unstoppable. I-I thought we were all dead. Then, you show up. And you beat him. And you saved all those people." Sakura's explanation was somewhat hard for Naruto to understand, but he got the gist of it. Of course the girl was a bit emotional after everything that had happened; he could not even comprehend what the fight must have been like before he got there. Chaos, no idea what was going on, people dying all around. He continued to hug her, trying to soothe the fearsome kunoichi.

After a few more seconds, the girl let go of him as the crowd arrived. Naruto was greatly surprised when he found himself hoisted in the air by the massive group of people. "Three cheers for the Hero of the Leaf! Konoha's Second Yellow Flash!"

"NA-RU-TO!" they cheered, throwing him into the air as they did so and getting ready to do it again as soon as he was caught. "NA-RU-TO!" a part of him finally accepted a simple fact: the villagers actually respected him. Acknowledged him. Loved him. After all the hard work, all the pain, all the fighting, they finally acknowledged him. He was smiling now, as brightly as he could ever remember. "NA-RU-TO!" There was still a lot of work left ahead of him, but for the moment, he was a hero, the Akatsuki were defeated, nobody had died from the attack. He'd just enjoy himself for now.

* * *

Approximately one week later

The Tsuchikage's office was a rather drab room, as dull as the stone that the village of Iwagakure was carved from. He had a desk, a window, and two chairs. The man himself was an old man, veteran of multiple Great Shinobi Wars, and master of the rare Particle Release. Currently in his office was one of his spies from Konoha, telling a story that sounded almost unbelievable. "Hold on, before you ramble on, let me get a few things straight. Got it?" the girl nodded her head, and the elder leader cleared his throat. "Konohagakure was nearly destroyed in an attack?"

"Hai, Tsuchikage-sama."

"Perpetrated by a man presumed to be the leader of Akatsuki?"

"From what I heard, hai, Tsuchikage-sama." This was a troublesome thought. Iwa had often turned toward the Akatsuki mercenary group in order to cheaply complete the missions that were not quite worth sending his regular shinobi on. He had not really known they were a group of S-ranked missing-nin at the time of course, but still, there was no doubt to him that if Konoha were to find the headquarters of this leader they could probably find some evidence linking him to the group.

"And this one man was enough to bring the great village of Konoha to its knees?" he was being a bit sarcastic when referring to Konoha as such, though really, it was not much of an exaggeration. How could one of the five great ninja villages be brought down so easily? There had been no real indication that the city had softened up through the years, but now that he thought about it, maybe that Suna invasion a few years back had done a bit more than reported.

"Well there were actually a few of them, I believe, but they all referred to them as one. So, I guess it was only one man? But he had the Rinnegan!" For a second, he thought that maybe this particular spy had completely lost her mind when suggesting that one person had managed to leave Konoha in ruins. It seemed impossible. However, the idea that this person possessed the Rinnegan would definitely give them almost unimaginable power. Those eyes were legendary for their power, and someone who owned them would be nearly unstoppable. Which raised an important question in his mind.

"So, how exactly was someone with the Rinnegan, clearly a competent opponent from your description, defeated?" The girl in front of him began to sweat suddenly, and avoided eye contact with him. This was very uncharacteristic from many of his shinobi, as most of the younger ones did not have the good sense to be afraid of him. At any other time, it would probably make him nostalgic for the days when friendly and enemy shinobi alike feared his very name. It definitely made him more curious in the whole situation.

"It-it was… you see, it's like this" it was so sad to see a trained shinobi spy behaving in such a manner. Back in his day, it never would have been tolerated and the girl would have been dismissed immediately. When had he allowed their training to slip so far?

"Spit it out!" He needed to know at this point. If Konoha had some sort of secret, Rinnegan stopping weapon, it could disrupt the balance of power in the elemental nations.

"Well" she began, clearly still a bit hesitant. "The village was almost defeated, clearly losing its will to fight back. Suddenly, in the middle of a giant crater, a blonde kid in his upper teens appeared on top of a giant toad."

"A toad summons?" he said, getting a nod. This was already a bit surprising. When the rumor came around that Jiraiya had died, and with his spies seemingly confirming this rumor, he had thought that maybe the old man had taken the toad contract to the grave with him. Apparently, someone else had been allowed to sign it.

"Anyway, for a minute, nothing happened. Then he reached into his pouch and pulled out a kunai. I could not see anything special about it from where I watched. He threw it, and made a hand signal that caused the one kunai to multiply into hundreds. At first I thought he was foolish, thinking that such a man could be defeated by such a simple technique. The enemy dodged easily, and kunai littered the battlefield. It was then that he… disappeared."

Ohnoki felt a pain in his chest and in his head, and for a moment thought that maybe he was having a heart attack combined with a stroke. A lone shinobi throwing hundreds of kunai onto the battlefield? Then disappearing? Plus, hadn't the girl mentioned earlier that the kid was blonde? It reminded him of the last war, of the man whom had killed many of his best shinobi. He could still see it in his head, usually only in his nightmares. Maybe there was still a chance he was jumping to conclusions?

"Then reappeared in an instant. It made me... think of a yellow flash." Just hearing the words 'flash' and 'yellow' in the same sentence again after all these years made him feel like he had spontaneously aged fifteen years. If it were not for his decades of experience, he thought that maybe he would have fallen dead out of his chair. He did not, however, and began the fight to regain his composure. "The fight escalated and I stood awe-struck, watching the confrontation. Eventually, however, he managed to whittle down the number of enemies before using some sort of shadow clone jutsu combined with what I presumed to be Hiraishin to swarm the last guy standing. And just like that the Rinnegan-user was defeated. Having seen the end of the fight, I immediately left to inform you."

Hearing the word Hiraishin made him shiver, but if the girl saw it, she was wise enough to say nothing. How could it be possible! That monster had been the only one who was ever recorded using the technique in such a way, and he had died almost two decades ago. He could still remember the smile on his face when he learned of it. Konoha, somehow, had taught another shinobi to use the technique. How foolish he was to have wasted all the years. If only he had done something all those years ago, maybe he could have prevented this. Suddenly, he felt a jolt of resolution through his body, and the calmness drilled into him from the time when he was himself a genin returned to him.

He could no longer be the fence-sitter. Something had to be done, and that was final. The problem, however, was that even a weakened Konoha combined with Suna would likely be able to defeat Iwa in a conflict. The first step to action would be to seek out a powerful ally, and Ohnoki knew of only one of the five Kage who would be willing to even talk to him about this.

* * *

About the same time

The office of the Raikage was essentially a weight-lifting room with a desk next to a window. An extremely muscular man sat behind the desk, the hat of his office on his head and over a hundred pounds of weights in his right arm serving as a warm-up. Across from him sat a somewhat timid man, deemed useless in the field of traditional ninja work but trained in appearing average. He was one of the few permanent spies he sent out, and this one had been in Konoha.

The man told an incredible story, involving a man with the Rinnegan appearing out of nowhere, wreaking havoc, and reducing a large section of the city to rubble. Rarely had he found himself so interested in something that did not involve his own training. If this were true, that meant that Konoha had finally been taken down a notch.

"And then, when everything seemed lost and I was planning an escape, a giant cloud of smoke arose from the crater. When it cleared, I saw some blond teenager sitting atop the boss of the Toad Summons."

A teenager being able to summon the leader of one of the major summoning clans? That was very impressive, but he doubted that they would be any match for the Rinnegan. It was admirable, however, for a young shinobi to be so willing to die for his village. Maybe he could replace that kid with some Kumo shinobi and have it taught in the academy? But why exactly was his spy worried with a meaningless detail like hair color in that situation?

"After a moment, he drew out a kunai. He was a good distance away, so at the time, I did not notice anything special about it. He threw it, and did a hand seal which caused it to multiply to around two hundred kunais. Naturally, against the Rinnegan, all of them missed. But then… something happened after that. I-I'm not sure if you'll believe me."

Ay raised an eyebrow at the man. He was the Raikage, he could handle any revelation no matter how big or small. How dare he, some cowardly spy, even imply that he would be unable to understand! Maybe he'd give him a Lightning Straight and hospitalize him to remind him of his place.

"He disappeared, and a split-second later, reappeared above one of the kunai." He did not even have the time for his brain to process what exactly had been said before his body reacted and his left hand shattered the wooden desk into nothing but splinters. A second later, he allowed himself to think. It seemed that Konoha had found some way to teach the Hiraishin jutsu to one of its shinobi. He knew that it had always been a possibility, he just wondered why they had not immediately done it upon that blonde's death?

"U-umm… anyway" the man said, for some reason shocked by the destroyed desk, "That Konoha shinobi won the fight, and I immediately decided that you would only believe me if I told you myself. So I left for Kumo as quickly as I could, knowing that I would not be missed among all the casualties."

"It was good of you to tell me this. Dismissed." Left alone in his office, Ay began to think. If there was now a second Yellow Flash, it could be nothing but trouble for his entire village. The original had been the only man he had ever encountered who could move faster than him, and the time they encountered each other in a forest still got under his skin. The way that man had toyed with him and his brother, as if they were nothing. Of course, he had improved in the many years since then and had always wanted another meeting. Until now, that had been impossible with the man dead.

The opportunity was perfect really. Konoha would be weakened and in a state of rebuilding. If Kumo could strike now, it might be the best chance they'd ever have to eliminate Konoha as a threat. Not to mention, he could get the chance to face the Yellow Flash once more and prove that he was now the strongest shinobi in the elemental nations. Even if he did not get to do it personally, the satisfaction would be almost the same. Plus, there was the fact that Bee would be around to protect the village, meaning he could be on the frontlines. And, though he would never admit it out loud, it could be extremely dangerous to let some teenager who managed to learn the Hiraishin more time to develop.

There was a problem, however, in the form of Suna. Sure, Suna was the weakest of the five ninja villages, but they were not weak. Fighting Konoha and Suna at the same time, alone, would prove a very difficult task. Although he was confident that his shinobi would pull through, especially with his leadership, there had to be some way to help shift the odds even more into his corner. That's when an idea struck him that made him so excited he jumped out of his seat and accidentally threw the weights in his right-hand through the ceiling. Of course there was one other Kage who would hate to hear about a new Yellow Flash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm working on getting all my work over here to AO3. 
> 
> Thank you all for reading; please feel free to kudos/comment/bookmark.


	2. Rebuilding and Bounties

It had been about three weeks since the Pein attack, and Naruto was spending yet another day committed to doing nothing other than helping to rebuild the village of Konoha. As he had found out a long time ago on the Wave mission, his shadow clones were perfect for the task of large-scale construction. Sure, they were not exactly carpenters or architects, but people were needed to move the building materials and other simple tasks. He could not be exactly sure, but he guessed there were around three-hundred of himself running around, all fully occupied.

The village was really rallying itself together, and for the first time, Naruto felt he understood the Will of Fire. Many of these people, ranging from civilians to high-ranking shinobi, had lost all of their worldly possessions in the attack, and yet, here they were working their hardest to rebuild. They had the option to either break down or work hard, and they chose hard work. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to contribute to the effort. As it turns out, when Nagato returned life to the dead, the jutsu healed the fatal wound only. So, there were still a large amount of injuries to deal with.

The hospital had been in the center of Konoha and thus was completely destroyed by Pein. One of the first things they set up in the days following the attack was a large medical area consisting of many large tents. It was a crude, not entirely sanitary method of dealing with the injuries but was the only real option they had. All shinobi who knew medical jutsu were called upon to help treat the patients, but since medical jutsu was not a widespread area of expertise, the volunteers had a difficult time. With Lady Tsunade in a coma, Sakura was doing her best to lead the effort.

Naturally, with the hospital destroyed, there was a large shortage in herbs and medicine to treat infections and help deal with the pain. Messengers had been sent out to numerous surrounding villages asking for donations but the only one that sent aid in response was Suna. It was not a lot, and Naruto could understand because he distinctly remembered them having only a small herb garden, but it was enough to help the cause. Thankfully, most of the critical cases were taken care of in the first week and many of the patients were now stabilized. Naruto still worried though; last time he had seen Sakura, she looked like she had not slept for days.

Currently, he found himself working mostly to rebuild the market district. It was important to get the economy of the village functioning again if Konoha was going to recover from the attack; at least, that is what Shikaku, Shikamaru's dad, advised. The man was one of the leading figures in the rebuilding and was apparently as much of a genius as Shikamaru, so Naruto did not really think himself one to argue.

"Naruto!" he heard his name shouted, and thought the voice sounded only a little familiar. Getting the feeling that this much excitement was probably more than another academy student seeking an autograph, he looked around, planks of wood still held firmly on his shoulders. It took a second but he eventually saw someone who looked a bit out of place. An old man with a large backpack and hand holding a toolbox with a younger kid, around twelve years old, next to him.

"Wow! Tazuna! Inari!" How many years had it been since he'd seen them? Four already? It was hard to believe how time could fly by sometimes. He quickly hauled the wood to where it needed to go and rushed to greet them. Hugging Inari tightly, he lifted the child up onto his shoulders. He was not entirely sure why he did it; it just felt right. He reached out to shake Tazuna's hand. "What are you guys doing here? And how'd you find me?"

"Are you kiddin'?" the older man said, laughing. "When I heard what happened to Konoha, I figured the least I could do was offer my service after everything you brats did for me. Of course, Inari here's been rearin' to visit ever since you left but business has picked up too much. Besides, pretty easy to find you; we just kept asking all those clones. You keepin' busy?"

"Oh yeah, barely have a day off. Maybe one of these days I'll get to come down there and visit you guys, if you don't mind?" Naruto did not want to impose, but it would be great to go down to Wave Country sometime and see how much things had changed since his first mission all those years ago.

"Of course not Naruto-nii!" the kid atop him shouted, making Naruto chuckle a bit. It was hard to believe that at one time he wanted to knock him on top of the head. "I hear they've been calling you a hero now. You know, you were our hero first and don't you forget it."

"Trust me Inari, I don't think I'll ever be able to forget your village." Having your sensei captured, almost dying, having your best friend almost die, having your enemy-turned-friend die, then seeing the Demon of the Hidden Mist shed tears as he ripped men apart with a lone kunai between his teeth all on your first mission outside the village was not exactly something that was easy to forget. "How have you been holding up anyway?"

"Good; I'm learning to become a fisherman! Like Kaiza! Well, I'm also learning a bit about construction. Mixing it up, ya know?" Naruto nodded, happy that the child had a direction in his life nowadays.

"I'm glad to hear it. I guess I haven't been doing anything too interesting; mostly training."

"Hah, yeah right! I bet you've got tons of cool ninja stories to tell!"

"Well, maybe a few. Some involving giant toads, one involving a guy with more than one heart. But, that will have to wait for some other time."

"Aww, why not now? You've got all these clones doing work, can't we just hang out for a bit?" The boy was obviously a bit disappointed and, truth be told, Naruto was as well.

"Listen, I'm sorry that I can't visit longer but what kind of hero would I be if the village was destroyed and I spent all my time chatting? I'll have to catch you guys later. Try to find me before you leave, alright? If we don't run into each other again?" Naruto reached up to put Inari back onto the ground, who gave just the tiniest hint of a whine.

"Oh yes, of course. I need to go find my employer anyway. Come on Inari, I think we've bothered the poor guy enough for today."

"Yeah yeah, whatever old man. See you around Naruto-nii!" The two of them walked off, leaving Naruto with a smile. As good as it was to see Tazuna and Inari again, there was no shortage of work to be done. And yet, now that he thought about it, there was one thing in particular that he knew he needed to do above all else. He'd been avoiding it for a few days, but he didn't really know why. He might as well get it taken care of while he was already distracted

Walking through the designated medical area, he couldn't help but notice a ton of activity as medic-nin moved from tent to tent checking on their patients. It seemed like there were a lot of people still incapacitated even after all the weeks. He knew where he was going, however. He walked to a large white tent that was deemed the medical headquarters. Inside, he saw a few people working to ration the medicine among the patients and discussing various things that he could not quite hear. Walking toward the back, however, he saw a familiar head of pink hair.

"Look, we simply can't perform that surgery with our medical supplies. I've told you, we're sticking to performing critical operations only. If it isn't life-threatening, we just can't do it right now."

"Sakura!" the pinkette turned away from the nurse she was talking with to look at him, and Naruto could not help but feel concerned for his teammate. Her usually well-kept hair was in total disarray, and she had bags underneath her eyes. Her whole body was slouched over ever-so slightly and her eyes were mostly unfocused.

"Oh, Naruto? What are you doing here?" she said, barely stifling a yawn at the end. Thinking as quickly as he could, Naruto devised a quick little scheme.

"Hey Sakura-chan! I wanted to check up on you and baa-chan. Can you show me her tent? I think they moved her or something."

"Ugh, Naruto, can't you see I'm busy?" she said, her voice sounding more desperate than angry.

"Come on Sakura, it'll only take a second!" he knew he was probably annoying her a bit, but right now, it was what she needed. She sighed a bit, and looked around as if to see if anyone was looking for her, before walking past him. He followed, presuming she was doing as he asked.

"Lady Tsunade's been in stable condition for a while now. She is perfectly healthy but her body's not ready to wake up."

"Yeah, I guess it takes a while for the old hag's body to take care of itself these days huh?" Sakura chuckled, and Naruto was happy to have made her laugh even a little bit in her current over-worked state.

"Actually, her age probably does have something to do with it. Just don't tell her I said so." she said with a smile. "Anyway, this is her tent. If you'll excuse me..."

"Would you mind coming in with me? I-I just… hate seeing her like this, ya know?" He gave her his best puppy-dog look, knowing she'd be completely unable to resist in her current state. Who needed a Yamanaka mind-control jutsu anyway? She just sighed again before going in through the opening, bypassing the two ANBU-guards.

"Oh, hello, are you here to see Lady Tsunade?" Shizune said from the woman's side. Naruto was glad to see her, and it looked like his little gamble would definitely pay off.

"Hey Shizune, Naruto just wanted to check up on her. Still the same?"

"Yeah, no changes. Hopefully she'll be waking up within the next few days."

"Look, Shizune, I was hoping you could fill in for Sakura for the rest of the day. I know you're qualified for the job. Sakura needs a break." Naruto sprung his trap on the unsuspecting pinkette, who looked at him shocked.

"Naruto! Thanks for the concern, but I'm more than capable..." her sentence was interrupted by a rather vicious yawn.

"Sakura, you're the best medic-nin I know. In a few years you'll be better than Tsunade. But you need to rest. You know it's not possible to do your best work when you're this tired. Shizune can hold down the fort, right Shizune?" he looked over to the surprised apprentice, pleading with her to say yes even if he had kinda put her on the spot.

"If you need a break, you can always come to me. If Lady Tsunade wakes up when I'm not here I am sure she will understand." Sakura just looked between the two of them before she finally relaxed a bit.

"Okay, I guess, maybe, I may need a nap. But I'll be there in an hour or two to take over again, okay Shizune?" The older apprentice nodded. "Naruto, will you walk me back to my tent? You know, be a gentleman and all that."

"Sure thing." They left the tent, Shizune heading towards the medical headquarters while Naruto followed Sakura to what he presumed to be her personal quarters.

"Sorry to spring that up on you. I just knew that you'd never agree if I spoke to you around all those people." he tried explaining himself to his teammate.

"You don't need to apologize. I know better than to push myself that hard. What happens if I pass out suddenly from chakra exhaustion? There's just so much to do, so many people who need my help. I don't know how you do it Naruto. Wanting to protect all of them." she said, practically whispering toward the end.

"I understand what you mean, Sakura. It's tough looking out for so many people. I guess that's why everyone thought I was an idiot for wanting to be Hokage. Well, one of the reasons. But people will look up to you for it; for volunteering for a job that everyone knows is hard. Besides, if it's something as important as this, wouldn't you rather know it was you looking out for all of them? Since somebody else could get it wrong?"

"When did you get so smart?" she said with a smirk, causing him to chuckle.

"I guess I get a stroke of inspiration every now and then." he said, causing her to laugh right back at him. It felt good, just talking to her for a bit. It was something he had not really been doing ever since the attack; they had just both been so busy.

"Maybe if I paid more attention I would have noticed when you changed so much." Naruto was confused by her statement, not really getting it. "It's obvious, you know. To anyone paying attention it is easy to see how much you've grown. Before the attack, nobody was looking enough to see it. But now, you're a hero. Everybody will start to see it for themselves. I'm happy for you, even if it means everyone else will keep you busy."

"Thanks Sakura-chan." He did not understand exactly what she was trying to say, but attributed it mostly to her state of extreme fatigue. The pinkette rarely made so little sense to him.

"Well, this is my tent Naruto. Home sweet home I guess. Funny, I'm a medic-nin, but I guess sometimes even I still need other people to watch out for me."

"It's okay, just makes up for the thousands of times you've had to heal or visit me in a hospital" he offered with a smile. He could already tell that just their conversation had done her some good; it was as if some of the weight on her shoulders had been physically removed and she was walking a bit straighter.

"Thank you." she said, before going inside. He left, knowing the poor woman would be sound asleep within five minutes simply from the look on her face. It was kind of ironic, really; all the times where people had told him that he'd be unable to help anyone if he wore himself out and now he was making sure Sakura didn't do the same thing. Unsure of what to do with the rest of his day, he started doing a few odd jobs back in the market district.

About two hours later, he was interrupted from his important menial labor by some messenger. Needless to say, he was very surprised to find that he was being summoned by Shikaku, a man whom he had only met one time prior for about one minute while he was told what to do and why. Still, if the jounin commander was summoning him personally, that had to mean something important was going on. He wasted no time in heading toward the temporary military headquarters.

The current headquarters was the largest tent available to them, which was necessary since it was trying to replace the Hokage Tower. A lot of activity took place inside the tent, as messenger shinobi frequently went in and out to take orders to certain shinobi. Walking inside, he saw many ninja running around or discussing which kinds of missions they should be taking in their current state and who to send on them. Eventually, he found Shikaku near the back, looking like he rather be anywhere else on the planet.

"Hey, Shikaku, you needed me for something?" To say he was curious as to why he would possibly be called for at a time like this was an understatement.

"Oh, Naruto, you're here already? Good." Naruto saw him reach into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a book. After years of training with Kakashi and Jiraiya, he was somewhat surprised when it actually was not an Icha Icha book. "Are you aware of what a bingo book is?"

"Yeah, it's where all the bounties for missing-nin are listed. What's this got to do with me?"

"You are only half right." the Nara stated casually. "Bingo books not only contain bounties on missing-nin, but can also contain bounties on shinobi still affiliated with their villages. This is usually frowned-upon since it's essentially putting a hit on another country's shinobi, but exceptions are made for two reasons. One: the shinobi is seen as a great threat to the village in the event of war, and Two: the village wants to make a statement. Now, this bingo book just so happens to be a new release from Iwagakure. Typically, on-duty shinobi would be listed in a black market book and not an official release. Look through it and tell me what you see."

Naruto hesitantly picked up the book, and thumbed through it until he found the section on Konoha. Looking through it, he saw a bunch of ninja he had never seen before and were mostly Chuunin level, or as the book stated them, B-rank danger. He was deeply surprised when he turned the page and was suddenly looking at a picture of himself. Off the top of his head he could not even think of how Iwa could have gotten a recent picture, but it looked to be within the last six months or so.

"… this is me" he said plainly, not sure what else he was supposed to say. He had never even been in Iwa and they were putting a bounty on him? That didn't make any sense.

"Read the description" was the only response that he got. Doing as he was told, he was further surprised when they seemed to know his age, height, and weight. How exactly had they gotten all this info?

"Known nicknames: Hero of the Leaf, Second Yellow Flash. Danger Level: S-rank. Strengths: The Hiraishin jutsu; ninjutsu specialist. Combatants below S-rank encouraged to disengage until reinforced." He found himself reading it out loud, somewhat unable to process everything. It felt weird to be deemed an S-rank ninja, even if he had defeated Kakazu and Pein and knew he already had two S-ranked jutsu to his name. Also, it seemed a bit odd that they would already know those things about him since they were so new.

"And the bounty?" His eyes skipped back to the very top of the page, where the bounty was usually listed. He had bypassed it earlier out of surprise from seeing his own picture and name, he supposed.

"FIFTY MILLION RYO!?" That was an absolutely shocking number. He had seen maybe one other person while he was skimming the pages whose bounty even reached close to five million. Why was Iwa willing to pay so much to go after him? It didn't make any sense.

"Dead or alive. Now, I need you to listen to me, alright? That is not just a regular bounty on your head; it is the highest current total in the book. For comparison: Kakazu was at twenty-five million. Hidan was twenty million. Deidara, whom was from Iwa, was only at fifteen million. Sasori? Thirteen million. Asuma, son of an active Hokage with direct ties to the Daimyo, was held at thirty-five. I think that it's clear the Tsuchikage is holding a bit of a grudge from your father's actions in the last war. Additionally, I don't think it's possible, certainly not probable, that Iwa is paying that total alone. There has been a lot of troublesome things happening recently.

As you know, we're allied with Kusa who serves as a buffer between the Lands of Earth and Fire. We just got a message about a day ago from them stating that a lot more Iwa-nin are doing increased border patrols. Coincidentally, to the north-east, we've got reports that Kumo-nin have been patrolling into the Land of Bears and harassing Hoshigakure. Officially, Kumo and Iwa have never been allied though for a large portion of the last war they practically ignored each other. Personally, I think it is odd that Iwa and Kumo are testing our allies at the same time, and I think the two of them are cooperating." It was amazing how lazy the man could sound even when describing something that seemed important.

Naruto did his best to try to comprehend everything. Kumo and Iwa working together against Konoha would obviously never be a good thing, but it was especially bad at a time like this where a lot of shinobi were either injured or occupied with rebuilding the village. "So, why are you telling me all this?" He wasn't entirely sure he understood the point of telling him anything past where he learned he was in the bingo book. As interesting as it all was, he was just some low-level genin.

"You're a hero now, Naruto. The honor is not without its burdens; these people look up to you, respect you. And if Kumo and Iwa start encroaching on us, they'll look to you for leadership. Shikamaru told me you want to be Hokage; well, this is where it starts. Just like your father. Now, it seems obvious to me that, if you've defeated two S-ranked opponents and are S-ranked in Iwa's bingo book, you are not a genin level shinobi. On my authority as jounin-commander, I hereby grant you a field promotion to the level of Jounin effective immediately, to be judged by Lady Hokage upon her recovery."

At some point, Naruto had started to wonder if perhaps Shikaku's ability to give such detailed explanations without changing pitch while sounding completely disinterested was some kind of Nara kekkai genkai. It was a bit worrisome to think that people would start looking to him for guidance, but like Shikaku said, it was a natural step toward his dream. Still, he was completely blindsided by his sudden apparent promotion.

"Ummm, thanks, I guess?" He did not really know what to say. He went from learning that people would be willing to pay an absurd amount of money for his death to being promoted and skipping the rank of Chuunin. It was a wild shift in what he was thinking about, to say the least.

"One more thing: the amount of work you've done for this village is appreciated greatly; however, you should be ready for regular mission duty. At the very least, every jounin is needed at this time, but we especially cannot have an S-rank shinobi unavailable. That will be all."

Naruto gave the man a courteous nod before turning around. There was a lot for him to take in; he had to worry about the possibility of conflict once again on the horizon as well as prepare for his new duties as a jounin. Not to mention the fact that he would have to tell all of his friends. He could already see Konohamaru's smile.

"Wait, Naruto" he had barely taken a step before he heard the Nara's voice call out to him. Well, if speaking slightly louder than usual counts as calling out.

"Yeah? What is it?" For a second, he allowed himself to think that maybe he had walked away too early but he was sure that Shikaku dismissed him.

"Look, I guess I feel bad that you're a teenager and have a bounty on your head or something; not sure. You don't have to listen, but I just want to give you some advice: Your father used the Hiraishin; the jutsu did not use him." Shikaku waved his hand to dismiss him this time, and Naruto thought that maybe it was possible the man had enjoyed using him as a distraction from his duties. He was not entirely sure what exactly a jounin-commander was responsible for, but it seemed they had a lot of responsibility when the Hokage was out of action.

As night began to approach, Naruto began to walk back toward his tent. At this point in the day, most of his shadow clones had finished their construction jobs and dismissed themselves, and as a result, he was feeling rather exhausted. He did not quite understand Shikaku's last words to him, but assumed that he would figure it out given a little bit of rest. It had been a long day, full of physical labor and surprises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> beta read by: the road I know
> 
> I understand that Hoshigakure is Anime Filler only. If you read manga exclusive, just know they're a very small hidden village north of Konoha. I will not be using all of the filler content, just bits and pieces. It helps with this type of story to have a few extra bits of worldbuilding for the ninja villages. If you don't know it, don't worry, I'll keep that in mind for later chapters! 
> 
> Also, pairing: Currently I don't know about the pairing. I have a few ideas but I'm trying to let the story direction point toward a natural fit. That said: No harem. Naruto x One Female.
> 
> As always, thank you for reading. Feel free to kudos, comment, bookmark, or simply continue reading!


	3. An Unlikely Ally?

_Uzumaki-san, I have called for a meeting of the Konoha Council to take place at sunrise tomorrow in the military headquarters. It is my wish that you will be able to attend as a guest of mine. This scroll will serve as your key to get into the tent, and I look forward to seeing you there. The main topic of discussion will be the seemingly impending threat of war. This event will be heavily guarded by ANBU and some of my personal bodyguard, but this scroll shall grant you access past them._

_Adviser to the Hokage,_

_Danzo Shimura._

Naruto had found the small, somewhat indistinct scroll at the foot of his bed rest as he returned from another long day of laboring. His interest had, of course, immediately been piqued, and he had been eager to read it. After reading it, however, he had no idea what to think. How long ago had it been where he had been training at Mount Myoboku; before the village was devastated by Pein's attack, before his promotion to jounin. Not long ago at all; and yet, here he was, requested to attend an important council meeting by somebody he had never met.

And so he found himself making his way to the headquarters in the early hours of the day, the sun barely beginning to rise somewhere far to the east. He was very nervous about the whole matter, being unsure of too many things. What would happen at the council meeting? What kind of discussion would it be? Was war really impending? Would he be able to even talk clearly in the face of so many people who were undoubtedly well-versed in politics? And, most importantly, why was he even being called for in the first place?

All these questions and more weighed on his mind as he presented the scroll to the ANBU guards in front of the tent, who glanced at the signature at the bottom before giving him permission to go inside. He stepped through the folds of the tent and immediately looked around. In the middle of the floor there was a large circular desk, with chairs gathered around and people occupying them. It was pretty easy to recognize most of them, considering the number of friends he had who were the children of clan heads. Yamanaka, Hyuuga, Akimichi, Aburame, Inuzuka, and Nara made up most of the group, with several of the clan heads having an adviser for themselves.

"Naruto, what are you doing here?" Shikaku asked, rising from his position of being head-down on the desk with a questioning look in his eye. Naruto was not really too sure what to say, aside from being invited, before someone else answered from right behind him.

"Uzumaki-san is a guest of mine, Shikaku." Shikaku kept the same questioning look in his eye as he put his head back down, his glance not breaking from them. Naruto turned around and came face to face with the man that he presumed to be Danzo Shimura. He was flanked on either side by an older man and an older woman, people he had seen prior at the Third or Tsunade's side. He was a tall man, standing straight and composed though supported by a cane. His right arm was covered in bandages and supported by a sling; his right eye and forehead were also covered in bandaging. Naruto wondered what sorts of injuries the man must have endured to be in such shape. "Ah, Uzumaki-san, it is a pleasure to meet you at last. I am Danzo Shimura; thank you for coming on such short notice." The man bowed ever so slightly, and Naruto returned it with a slightly deeper bow. He then walked past Naruto before taking a seat at the sole remaining empty chair.

"I thank you all for coming on such short notice." The older man and woman, the Hokage's advisers Naruto remind himself, both stood to the left of him. Naruto, seeing a pattern of everyone left standing in the room being next to a clan-head, decided to stand to the right of Danzo. He was sure he saw the man smile ever-so slightly at the action.

"Yeah yeah, just tell us all why you wanted this meeting" the Inuzuka said with a yawn, getting a series of nods from the other clan heads.

"Very well; no time can be wasted in dire circumstances such as these, I suppose. As you are all undoubtedly aware, the allies of Konoha are currently being tested. Kusa is sending in reports of incursions by Iwa and Hoshi is reporting that several of their patrols have already been attacked by Kumo. These actions are a proven precursor of war. It cannot be known, at this point in time, whether or not war is inevitable, but I think we can all agree that it is safer to play upon the assumption that it is."

"We were just attacked, a large part of the village was destroyed. Don't you find it more likely that the two nations are trying to explore their boundaries a bit?" the Akimichi asked, to which Danzo shook his head.

"If that were true, why were similar actions not taken after the attack by Orochimaru and Suna? If anything, perhaps it would have been a more opportune time. A nation, leaderless without its Hokage, having lost one of its supposed allies, surely would have seemed a prime target. That is why I believe these recent attacks upon the villages whom align themselves to us to be a sign of a more sinister intent. The situations of Kumo and Iwa have not changed much between now and then; neither is noticeably stronger, neither is noticeably more wealthy."

"Look, Chouza," Shikaku began, seeming to regret whatever it was he was about to say, "I have to agree with Danzo here. This situation should absolutely be considered one of the last steps toward war. He makes a good point about the Suna attack, and I would say he's missing an important point, but clearly he did not if his guest of honor is any indication." The Akimichi nodded, apparently beginning to understand the seriousness of the situation.

"Yes, thank you Shikaku," Danzo said, his voice completely even as it had been the entire time, "There is, of course, another reason I believe that war may be inevitable. This reason has to do with Uzumaki-san."

"Me? What about me?" Naruto asked, a bit uncomfortable at having suddenly been in the spotlight.

"After all these years, a seventeen year old comes to the forefront with the ability to use the Hiraishin jutsu." Danzo exclaimed, both to the council and, Naruto felt, to him personally. "The first person to use it since Minato himself, the most hated man in Iwa and hero of the last Great Shinobi War. This teenager just so happens to bear a striking resemblance to the Fourth and has the ability to summon toads, a summons associated with Jiraiya and the Fourth in recent memory. Immediately after Uzumaki-san unveiled his learning of the Hiraishin, we begin to see these actions by Iwa and Kumo. I do not believe it a coincidence. But ultimately, that is of little importance. The true importance is that we have a response."

"We need to send forces to Kusa and Hoshi, show them that we're not going to back off!" Tsume said, to which a few agreed.

"Inuzuka-san, I do not think it logical that we attempt to meet both sides at once. If they escalate the conflict, shinobi on both fronts will be at risk and there may be significant losses."

"So what would you suggest, Aburame-san?" Her words held a bit of bite at being so calmly dismissed, yet genuine curiosity was present.

"We send a strong force to Kusa, to assure them and dissuade Iwa. If Iwa and Kumo are secretly allied, then we need only discourage one." There were a few nods for the Aburame, some of the present agreeing with his position.

"But how do we explain to Hoshi that we are ignoring their plight?" It did not seem that the Yamanaka was among the supporters, however.

"Yamanaka-san is right; it would be a disgrace to this village if we should abandon an ally in their time of need. Our reputation will be forever stained." Nor was the Hyuuga.

"All of the proposals are plausible options; that's why it is important to have a strong central figure who makes the decision. That's where this is going, isn't it Danzo?" Shikaku was looking at Danzo with nothing but calculation in his eyes, seemingly sure of the man's intentions. Naruto, for his part, had been attempting to figure things out for himself. If it were his decision, he would never abandon Hoshigakure; he could still remember his mission there, years ago.

"You are correct Shikaku. With the position of Hokage being empty in this time of crisis, our actions are unguided and imprecise, our direction unclear. How can this village possibly be expected to deal with threats such as Iwa or Kumo without a decisive leader? Even you, as Jounin Commander, are greatly restricted in your abilities to assign missions. If memory serves, it is illegal for anyone not of Hokage status to issue an S-rank, is it not?"

"Yes, that is correct. It has not, however, been much of an issue yet."

"You say 'much' and 'yet' meaning that it has been a slight issue and that you understand it could be a major one in a time of war. Additionally, the ANBU commander is not authorized to carry out missions outside the Land of Fire in such a time as there is no Hokage. So, all of you can surely understand lacking a Hokage at this point in time could be a critical blow toward this village."

"But we have a Hokage" Naruto said immediately afterward, causing Danzo to tilt his head toward him a bit but not say anything. It made him slightly uncomfortable; he could feel that the man was looking at him, yet it was only the bandaging. "Tsunade is our Hokage, and Shizune says she could be waking up at anytime."

"Ah yes, of course. All the reports regarding Lady Tsunade indicate that she is stable; that is, neither improving or worsening. I have few doubts that she will awaken at some point. The question is when. Her condition has been stable since the first day after the battle, and yet she still slumbers. It is possible there is an underlying mental condition, some sort of trauma, that we do not yet know about. Even when she awakens we do not know the extent to which she will have to recover. If Hokage-sama is unable to perform her duties for, say, even another month, will it be too long? Will we be in full-scale war with Iwa and Kumo without a Hokage, without a strong leader? What if it's six months? Perhaps, without a visible Hokage, Iwa and Kumo will be more inclined to continue their escalation. All of these questions have answers that this village is better off not knowing."

Naruto, though he hated to admit it, could see that the elderly adviser was probably correct about the matter. Still, it did not seem right to replace a living Hokage, whether or not they were briefly incapable of leadership. Perhaps with the rising threat of Iwa and Kumo, however, it was the necessary thing to do. Maybe they would back off if a Hokage was around to deter them? And even if they didn't, well, the leadership would be needed regardless.

"So, you wish to have a vote to replace the Hokage, Danzo? You know the procedure; we hear nominations, assess their viability, then have a vote on the matter. If the vote passes with a majority, then the person who wins it is deemed temporary Hokage pending approval from the Daimyo." Shikaku asked, the smallest hint of a glint in his eye. Naruto couldn't help the feeling that these two had a bit of a history; maybe he'd ask Shikaku about it at some point.

"Yes, I am aware."

"Alright then. Who here would like to make a nomination for the Hokage position?" the Nara asked, still looking directly at Danzo and apparently expecting something. If the man was deterred or intimidated in any way, however, it did not show on him at all; Danzo was like a stone statue, sitting straight up and fully composed with no emotions visible upon his face. It seemed the man had a lot of experience with the realm of politics.

"I would like," the elderly man to the left of Danzo began, "to nominate Danzo Shimura for the position of Hokage." So, was this all just some clever play for the man to get the Hokage position? It hardly seemed like he was fit for the job, with his apparently permanent injuries. A bunch of eyes lit up across the room, and Naruto had the distinct feeling that this was not the most surprising nomination for many among them. Danzo was an older ninja; perhaps he had been in the running for Hokage before. Fifth, Fourth, maybe even Third now that he thought about it.

"Danzo, while you are certainly an experienced shinobi and valued adviser," Shikaku began.

"I decline the nomination." Danzo said, causing a few of the people in the room to stare wide-eyed at the man. Interestingly enough, one of the most shocked was the man who made the nomination. Shikaku, for his part, was actually visibly shocked; a brief moment of utter confusion displayed on his face before he was able to mask it. He sat straight in his chair, for the first time in the meeting, and was staring at Danzo intently. If Shikaku was able to be tricked to such an extent, Naruto began to wonder just exactly this Danzo guy was capable of. "Although it is true that, in the past, I longed to become Hokage, I fear that I may finally be too handicapped to accept the nomination in earnest. It was a dream of mine throughout my life, ever since my experiences in a team led by Nidaime-sama himself. Having been passed on for the titles of Third, Fourth, and Fifth, it is clear to me that at this point in my life it is foolish to pursue such a direction." For a brief moment, there was a slight pang of sadness in his voice.

"I believe, at this time, the only use I have left in this withered body of mine is as an adviser" the man continued. "I would, however, be interested in making a nomination."

"Who would you nominate for the position, Danzo?" Shikaku asked, genuine interest present in his usually bored voice.

"Naruto Uzumaki." The room was silent and Naruto, for his part, felt like he had just been struck by a boulder. What was going on? Here he was, suddenly thrust into the conversation for a new Hokage by a man he had just met. The only way he could have been more surprised, at this point, was if Itachi and Sasuke came through the door singing a duet about pacifism. He wanted to say something, he was sure of it; but nothing came to mind for him to say and his mouth was suddenly feeling a bit dry. "If I may, allow me to explain my nomination."

"Uzumaki-san is certainly young;" Danzo said, every eye on him at this point yet seemingly unaffected, "however, we must look at the bigger picture. His strength has grown at an incredible rate, and his most recent feat includes taking down the owner of the Rinnegan. Considering that Kakashi and Tsunade were unable to surpass Pein, this makes him quite possibly the strongest shinobi in the village, and at such a young age. With his unique shadow clone training method, we are looking at a Hokage whose ability to train while even on-duty is unparalleled; a shinobi strong enough to defeat the leader of an organization of S-ranked criminals who will continue to get stronger as the days go by. Additionally, even at the age of seventeen, he is an accomplished sensei of sorts and has taught Konohamaru Sarutobi both the Shadow Clone and Rasengan jutsu. Would Team Ebisu be the most accomplished genin team of their generation without Uzumaki-san assisting in their progress? Such a thing seems doubtful. I know that he may currently lack experience, but realistically, with a team of advisers and the aid of Shikaku, I imagine that it will not be as important as it would seem."

"With all due respect to Naruto-san," the Aburame said, "I do not believe it justifiable to appoint someone so young to the position if we are indeed in a time of crisis."

"We must also think of the long-term interests of the village. If Lady Tsunade continues to be incapacitated, then it poses a major problem for the village. But, if someone is appointed, then they will remain so even upon Tsunade's return. This means it has to be a person who is strong, passionate, and willing to put the village first and foremost. Surely, no one is better suited by such criteria than Uzumaki-san. He is poised to be a Kage for the next forty years, should he be appointed so young. A period of stability so long would benefit everyone."

"Naruto is currently unfit for the position of Hokage." Shikaku said, with a bit of force behind his words. "He is completely inexperienced in field leadership and has no experience whatsoever in dealing with politics. I will not doubt his strength, nor the merits of his character; I simply believe it is too early. We have to consider that, perhaps, it would be wrong to place a burden so great on someone who is still developing. Additionally, I do not think it justifiable to take one of our few S-ranked shinobi out from active mission-duty at a time such as this. Though a Hokage is needed, it does little good if we do not have the proper ninja to carry out their orders. For this reason, I propose that it should be better to not appoint a Hokage at this time and that we should, instead, focus our efforts on doing what is within our power until Lady Tsunade is capable of resuming her duties. All in favor of dismissing this council gathered for the purposes of discussing a Hokage say aye."

There was a chorus of ayes from the clan-heads, who seemed happier at getting the chance to leave than having to really think about all that they had heard. Immediately, many rose from their seats and exited the tent, surprisingly enough Shikaku leading the way. Anyone who took a close look could see that something was weighing quite heavily on the genius's mind. A lot of the people seemed to have a look of thoughtfulness upon them, though Danzo for his part kept a straight face as he rose from the seat.

Naruto, meanwhile, was still stuck in some state of total lockdown. He had been so surprised by his sudden nomination that everything which followed felt surreal, as if it were part of a dream. It was so strange to hear Danzo, a man whom he had only just met, advocate so adamantly for him to get a position that, he knew, he was largely unqualified for at the moment. If somehow he had been given the chance at that moment, he would have taken it, but it seemed a better option to let it happen more  
naturally over time. Besides, he wanted Tsunade to give him the hat directly. Strangely enough, however, he felt a bit hurt that Shikaku had shot him down so forcefully toward the end. He hadn't even heard what grievances the other clan heads may have with him.

Realizing that Danzo was leaving the tent, Naruto walked after him. "Danzo, what exactly was that all about? Why would you try to nominate me? And why wouldn't you let me know first?" Part of him was upset over the suddenness of it all, and he wanted an explanation from the man before he disappeared.

"Ah, Uzumaki-san, you will have to forgive me if I sprang it upon you. I had been hoping to discuss it briefly with you this morning but, unfortunately, had very important matters which came up and delayed me. Why do you seem a bit upset? Is it not your dream, as it was mine, to become Hokage?" The man was perfectly calm and did not even miss a single beat between Naruto's questioning and his response. He just continued walking ever so slowly with his cane, looking directly ahead with no sign of emotion whatsoever.

"Well, yeah, it is. And it will happen, one-hundred percent! I was just… just surprised by it coming from you, is all. I'd never met you before today. So, you didn't answer my other question. Why would you try to nominate me?"

"I suppose it is only fair you receive the truth. Ever since the very day of your birth I have known of your jinchuuriki status and your parentage; as such, I was interested in how you would be treated and how you would progress. I wanted to be able to train you myself, but Hiruzen ruled against me on that regard. I hired a number of retired shinobi who kept tabs on you, whenever you were in the village, throughout your childhood all the way up until you left with Jiraiya. They would report to me on your status, things such as your apparent mental health, your reaction to the villagers' treatment, and eventually on the results of your training. And though I know you may bear some ill will over me watching you, I assure you it was on behalf of your potential both as a jinchuuriki and the Fourth's son. Potential of such levels must not be left to chance when it could benefit the village ever so much." Naruto felt the slightest bit creeped out that this guy had hired people to watch over him and report on him, but decided to try not to focus on it for the moment.

"I know that you will prove a worthy candidate," Danzo continued, "because I know that you have suffered for this village. A true Hokage understands that this is not a perfect village nor a perfect world. This village is filled with citizens who do not understand the very frailty of their existence, shinobi who are happy to accept mediocrity in favor of an easy life; yet, it is the most important thing in the world because it is ours. The ideal Kage understands this because they have felt it, whether it be the First who had to deal with putting it all together, deal with the distrust and the estrangement of his friends, deal with all the shinobi who doubted him; or the Second, who had to deal with the growing distrust of the Uchiha as well as rising threats from the other villages and the doubt that he could ever live up to Hashirama. They had to rise up from their positions, had to overcome to gain the seat." Uncharacteristically, from what Naruto had established, Danzo's voice had raised at this point. It seemed the man was very passionate about this topic in particular.

"Contrast that with the most recent Kage selections. Hiruzen was long considered a genius and was well-respected among the higher circles before the Second Great Shinobi War started; he had the tutorship of the Second as well as the support of his clan. The toughest turmoil of his life was Orochimaru's betrayal and, through that action, his will to act crumbled. He was never the same. Minato, your father, was an orphan prodigy the likes of which the village had never seen from the moment he set foot in the academy. He may not have known it, but before he was seven years old he had already been deemed the most promising student in years and his schooling was monitored by every major figure, from Hiruzen to myself. In the Third War it is true that he was forced to deal with losing a student, but that is suffering only for himself and was not a good gauge. When he was nominated for the position, I was not sure how he would react should he ever lose the good will of the village which he had held his entire life. He died, however, before anyone could know.

Tsunade… how such a woman could be Hokage is beyond me. A descendant of the First, willing to turn her back on the village because she lost a lover and one relative. So many people have lost much more; so many people did lose much more in the Third War. The Uzumaki Clan was wiped out, its few survivors scattered among the nations as leaves in a hurricane. And yet she should deem her own losses to be more important than the sacrifices of everyone else. But what of you, Naruto? Yes, of course you know what it is like to suffer for this village. The villagers purposefully ignored you most of your life, some showing outright disdain, others refusing you service in stores. You took it, and overcame it, and now they adore you. You've offered your life in its protection willingly, as any shinobi should, both against Gaara and recently against Pein. You turned the animosity against you into adoration, the desire to ignore you into the inability to be ignored. For these reasons I am confident you will be a good Hokage.

Perhaps you are a bit too enamored with the idea of necessary peace, but I believe you shall always have the village first in mind. Certainly, of your generation, you are the only candidate worth considering. I did not expect you to actually get the position today, but the seed has been planted in their heads and, as your deeds continue and your reputation grows, so too shall the seed. Now, if you will excuse me, I must be off."

The elder man picked up his pace a bit as he walked off, leaving a slightly dumbfounded Naruto in his wake. Apparently, Danzo had quite a strong idea of what made a good Hokage. Whether or not it was the right assumptions to be made about the position, Naruto could not really be sure. Certainly, there was no easy way to determine who would be the best Hokage, aside from his personal assumption that he would be. Everybody looked for something a little different in their leader, and Danzo had formed his over years of experience and observation. If nothing else, it appeared that the man seemed to value highly the importance of putting the village first.

Although, for some reason, there was something about those bandages that bothered him a bit. Oh well, it was probably nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here it is! A chapter focused entirely on politics with a heavy emphasis on Danzo. Now, in my opinion, there are several ways that the reader could probably interpret this chapter and the actions of all those within, and it is not my place to state which interpretation is correct. As always, more shall be revealed through the length of the story. I will not spoil any fights planned in the story and I will add characters/relationships to the tags should they become particularly relevant. I will state that the first true Arc of the story begins in the next chapter (The Kusa Arc, as I've so cleverly named it).
> 
> Thank you all for reading. Please feel free to kudos/comment/bookmark!


	4. Kusa Arc: Meeting a New Team

As he approached the village of Kusagakure, Naruto could not help but be confused about the country. He had thought that the area surrounding Kusa would be mostly grassy plains; instead, there was a large amount of trees and it looked almost identical to the Land of Fire. The countryside had a plentiful number of rivers and streams flowing through it. It was hard to believe that this was his first mission as a jounin; even if it was possible that Tsunade would revoke the promotion, at the moment, he could enjoy the rank.

"So, why do you think they chose us for this mission?" he asked to his one companion. The mission, as it was assigned, was simply to go to the head jounin and to assist him in any means necessary so long as it also served the good of Konoha. Basically, help Kusa unless they want them to do something that would betray their village. Naruto knew from what he had been told that Iwa-nin were causing a few problems along the border, both in that they were increasing their numbers and occasionally actually crossing it.

The man closed his book but made sure to keep a finger on the page. "Well, Naruto, here's what I think: Konoha is low on manpower at the moment. Normally, for a mission like this, they would send at least two teams consisting of a jounin and a few chuunin. Probably also there would be various other shinobi participating in different types of missions in the area. Now, I don't think I need to be modest here; we are two of the village's strongest shinobi. They expect us to be able to fill in, you know, quality over quantity and all that. Plus, if I had to guess, I would assume that they're sending us as a show of force to Iwa and a show of good faith to Kusa."

Naruto nodded. He had kind of guessed that those were the approximate reasons but wanted to have a more experienced view on it. Ever since the debacle that was the council meeting with Danzo, he had been doing his best to really think on what would be the best course of action, a skill that he would certainly need when he becomes Hokage. "That makes sense Kakashi-sensei. I guess I just don't really understand why they would send me if Iwa is involved. I mean, there's a bounty on my head and they hated my father. Isn't there a chance they'll, well, react poorly if they see me?"

"Yes Naruto, that is indeed possible. However, there are two possibilities at the moment: Iwa is probing us for weakness, or Iwa is preparing for an inevitable attack. If it is the first option, then it would be a sign of weakness for Konoha to try to hide one of its most promising shinobi from duty. It also serves as a show of strength and confidence that we would be willing to send you here even knowing of their position regarding you. And if it is the second option, well, they would attack anyway so there is no point worrying about it." Kakashi eye-smiled at him, but Naruto was not entirely sure how he felt about the whole situation.

It seemed like such a short time ago when he promised Nagato that he would find some way to bring peace to the world, and yet here they were, on the verge of war. He believed every word he said to the man, but perhaps he had been speaking a bit too excitedly. As much as he hated to think about it, maybe he was too young to be promising all these things? After all, he was only seventeen years old and barely understood the politics. Just when he was starting to feel a bit down about it all, he remembered Jiraiya and felt a renewed drive. If that old Pervy Sage had believed in him, the least he could do was believe in himself.

"Yeah, I guess you're probably right sensei" he said, after giving it a moments more thought. Perhaps these types of things were still a bit above his pay grade, for the moment, but he would figure it out in time. They came across a sudden clearing in the forest, and seemingly out of nowhere, there was a large plain in front of them. On this plain he saw for the first time the village of Kusagakure, and thought that maybe now he understood the name. The village was built in a large natural clearing in a forest covered by grass, so he supposed that they were hidden by the grass? Truthfully, part of him kind of thought that the village was just too late to name themselves Konohagakure, but maybe he was a bit biased.

The village itself was of a decent size, nothing near Konohagakure but definitely bigger than some of the smaller ninja villages like Hoshigakure. It made sense though; Kusa was often seen as one of the most likely villages to replace Suna, though Naruto was quite sure that would never happen in Gaara's term of office. Naruto and Kakashi casually strolled up to the village gates, making sure they would not be presented as a threat. The copy-nin showed the guards their signed mission scroll and they were free to meet with the leader of the seemingly growing village.

Walking down the streets of the foreign village, he could see that they were doing well. A lot of people were strolling the streets, with merchants' stalls up and down the sides. It made sense that they would be doing well; lumber and food were in heavy demand by his home village at the moment, and Kusa could provide both with little issue. He tried his best to take a good look around since it was his first time actually inside the village.

It was not very long before they approached the building of the village leader. Konoha had a tower designated for their Hokage, but apparently, Kusa decided on some kind of castle-like structure that was more popular among the Daimyo. It was a very impressive structure, in its own way. For his own part, he preferred the Tower. After a couple of minutes, they were allowed to meet the village head. At first sight, Naruto could tell that it was a man of average height with brown hair and brown eyes who seemed to be in his later thirties.

"Ah, the Konoha-nin are here. My name is Ayashi; it is a pleasure to meet you." The man gave a respectful tilt of the head, which Naruto and Kakashi returned with a half-bow to indicate their respect. Kakashi then proceeded to hand the man their mission scroll, which he briefly skimmed over before closing it. "Good, good. Needless to say, I was expecting a bit more than two shinobi with the way that Iwa has been behaving lately."

"Of course, Ayashi-sama," Kakashi began respectfully, and Naruto was almost surprised by how respectful his sensei could sound when he tried, "Normally, there would certainly be more; however, your message got to us at an awkward interval in mission assignments and many of our more capable shinobi are unavailable. My colleague and I were chosen, however, because our village does value your mission request highly."

"I understand, forgive me if I sounded like I was complaining; it was merely an observation. I am certain that Kakashi Hatake of the Sharingan Eye and Naruto Uzumaki, the Second Yellow Flash, will be enough to help dissuade a few wandering shinobi. Now, I'm sure you have already heard that Iwa has been increasing the size and frequency of their border patrols recently. I imagine the council shall be quite grateful to hear that it is you who has been sent. You will be teaming up with two of my more experienced genin squads and helping them to perform patrols. I will have them retrieved now. Please go get Teams Daisuke and Hideo." One hidden ANBU agent left the room while Naruto and Kakashi waited for them to return.

The door opened abruptly, and two teams of shinobi came in. It seemed like Kusa used the same genin-team system as Konoha, as there was one jounin-sensei per three genin. Naruto did feel a bit awkward, however, because the genin in the room were perhaps only a year or two younger than him. Practically speaking, he knew that there was nothing to be worried about since there had been far younger jounin than him before, but something about it just seemed unusual. Additionally, it was a little weird that the head jounin of Kusa,, a man he had never met, recognized him immediately. It suddenly seemed like there were so many new things he would have to get used to.

"Teams Daisuke and Hideo, these are the Konoha shinobi that shall be assisting you in your mission. As you know the lay of the land, you will be in charge, but keep in mind that these men are highly respected allied jounin and should be treated as such. Dismissed."

They left the room, grouped together but with the two Kusa jounin leading the way forward. "My name is Daisuke Kazahara" a shorter-than-average but somewhat muscular man said. He was about two to three inches shorter than Naruto with unruly brown hair, kind of like Kiba's except it flowed down instead of spiking upward.

"And I am Hideo Tokugama" the other man said with a bow. He was a tall, muscular man whose black hair was hidden away by a bandanna. He was obviously a very physical fighter judging from his body type. "We will be splitting up, with my team heading toward a northwestern village not far from the border and Daisuke's team heading to the mouth of the Tsuyoi river and patrolling along its banks. We will patrol these areas for two weeks, keeping an eye out for Iwa-shinobi. The current Rules of Engagement are as follows: should we find Iwa-nin have passed the traditionally accepted borders, we are to provide them a chance to leave. If they refuse, we are to trail them; we are not authorized to commence first conflict."

Naruto and Kakashi nodded, then the man leaned in closer to his group of genin, seemingly staring all three of them in the eye at once. "Are we clear?"

"Hai sensei" they all three said. Daisuke simply gave a sideways glance at his group, whom all promptly nodded their heads.

"This is where we split up, Naruto. I think I'll go with..." the man proceeded to point between Hideo and Daisuke, humming something that was barely audible. It almost felt relieving to Naruto to see his sensei behaving a bit like his normal self; the man had been a bit too serious ever since the Pein attack. "Hideo. You shall patrol the river with Daisuke then." Kakashi put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him a little closer, before speaking softly into his ear. "Be safe, Naruto. I know it's your first assignment as a jounin, but just keep a cool head and you'll pull through."

"Thanks, sensei." Naruto's eyes lit up as he thought of something. "By the way!" he said, backing away from the man and reaching into his kunai pouch, pulling out one of his Hiraishin kunai he used during his training. "Here, take this. I can't be sure the maximum distance I can travel, but it just seems like a good idea for you to carry one." The copy-nin nodded before putting the object into his pouch. "You should probably also take one as a precaution." he said toward Daisuke.

"Ah, so you are the Hiraishin kid then? You know, I thought it was you but I didn't wanna say anything" the Kusa-nin said with a smile as he took the kunai, examining the formula on the handle closely. Naruto was not particularly worried the man would try to copy it or anything, since the shortened Hiraishin formula varied on an individual basis. The guy was probably just curious about the famous jutsu. After a few moments, he put it into his own pouch. "Alright, well team, let's get going. Best of luck to you, Hideo." The teams left the village gates and immediately split off into separate directions.

"So, I didn't introduce myself properly. My name is Naruto Uzumaki." It made him feel a bit awkward that he had never actually told them his name. Or, maybe it made him feel more awkward that they had never even asked.

"Right. It is good to meet you, Naruto." Daisuke said. "You will have to excuse my genin here; they are unused to foreign shinobi I suppose. They are usually somewhat more talkative."

"I'm Hitachi." Naruto looked at him. A young man, probably about a year and a half younger than him. A few inches shorter than him, lanky body, not seemingly very muscular. Brown hair, which seemed to be quite dominant within Kusa, with brown eyes as well. He had an energetic voice, a bit like Kiba or himself.

"Natsuko." A young woman whom he would guess was the same age as Hitachi. Way shorter than him, probably six or so inches, with long flowing black hair and dark brown eyes. Her voice confident yet withdrawn, like a less forceful Sakura.

"Tadashi." Young man, almost the same height as him, probably same age as the other two. He had a muscular body and Naruto could plainly see a sword sheathe on his hip. He also had brown hair but his eyes were green. His voice was hard to place, sounding like some odd mix of Kakashi and Gai. Cool with an underlying energy. They said their names one after another as if performing a roll call. Naruto did his best to try to memorize their names with their faces, as you never knew what could prove useful knowledge.

"I always like to get to know my teammates. What are you guys' strengths? I count myself as a ninjutsu specialist, with a wind element." Now that he thought about it, he really should put some training into learning some new simple jutsu. As nice as shadow clones, rasengans, and Hiraishin are, it couldn't hurt to branch out a little bit. Maybe he'd get Kakashi to teach him a few things the next time they had the opportunity.

"Taijutsu-Ninjutsu mix; fire element." Daisuke said, seeming to comply with Naruto's wishes to have some sort of idea of what everyone was capable of at a basic level. "These three are still genin so I've been teaching them mostly the basics, except Tadashi knows some very basic kenjutsu. They are quite capable, just not very specialized and they are planning to take the next Chuunin Exams in Konoha." Naruto nodded, in his mind learning a bit more about life in a smaller shinobi village. The team did not seem to have a kekkai genkai user, as all of the successful teams from his graduating year did. Still, he had no doubt that with enough hard work they could be strong shinobi; like Rock Lee or Sakura.

"Are any of you from clans?"

"Tadashi here is from a kenjutsu-focused clan; that's why he has a sword. He's not too experienced with it yet, though, but in time I am sure he will become quite proficient. Hitachi and Natsuko are not clan shinobi, which is to say that they are not from established clans with sufficient influence in the village."

"What's Konoha like?" one of the genin asked, and Naruto was pretty sure that it was Hitachi. He had curiosity written in his eyes, but both of his teammates glared at him a little bit. Suddenly, something clicked in Naruto's head. Kusa was a village known for its diplomatic niceties, and it seemed to him that it was mostly the jounin's job to talk to him. He had noticed Daisuke jump in to speak for the genin a bit too much. Naruto was glad he had made the connection because he had thought that the kids were afraid of him or something.

"Konoha is a very large village, with a lot of people and a lot of different clans. I don't think we're too different from any other village in how we operate though; we have an academy, Kage, jounin, clan-heads, all that stuff. There are a few things that I think need to be fixed, but it's a place that I'm proud to call home. Even after the last attack, with a large part of the village destroyed, the citizens continue to work together and endure while the shinobi work with them and try to recover. That's why I'm going to lead them and protect them as Hokage someday."

They settled into a silence, advancing through the woods at a steady pace though Naruto got the idea that the genin were exerting themselves a bit more than they should have had to and wondered about their conditioning. After a few hours, however, Daisuke broke the silence but spoke in a softer tone of voice that would not carry through the trees.

"The Tsuyoi river is a large portion of our border with Iwa. The river originates in Iwa and flows south before curving eastward through some lowlands, carving a valley, and ending in the Land of Waterfalls. It has a strong current, hence the name, and its canyon makes it impossible to pass by any method other than via bridge. In the last war, the Kannabi Bridge was destroyed to force Iwa to navigate the heavier forests west of the river, where shinobi from Kusa and Konoha would have a natural advantage. We have since rebuilt the bridge, as it is a vital part of our economy."

Naruto nodded, taking in the short history lesson. It seemed to him that if Iwa were going to start a war then the bridge would be a good place to start, if it was as important as Daisuke made it seem. A shinobi would likely be able to get past a river valley with relative ease, using any number of techniques to get across. A caravan of supplies, however, would not be able to with any sort of efficiency. Plus, the roads to the forests to the west were likelier not as well-maintained and not good to travel on in rainy weather.

"You know, it occurs to me. Couldn't Iwa just use an Earth jutsu to make an Earth bridge across?" It seemed a rather obvious question to ask, given the nature of the enemy that they were fighting against. And he was sure that, if Konoha had some vital bridge destroyed, then it would be entirely possible to get Yamato to build a sturdy wooden one.

"Yes, they certainly could; however, an Earth bridge would be very chakra intensive to build in the first place and would require at least a jounin. After that, they would need to keep a similarly-skilled jounin on duty to ensure maintenance; after all, a bridge of Earth would have a harder time dealing with the current of the Tsuyoi as well as withstanding foot traffic across it. Next, that jounin, who is on maintenance duty instead of fighting at the front, will need to be protected just in case a raiding party goes after him, so that's further resources diverted away from fighting, waiting for an enemy that may never come. An obvious advantage for us. In the last war they deemed it more worthwhile to simply try bypassing it; I am not sure if they would do the same this time." Naruto nodded, supposing that the explanation made sense. Apparently the bridge was worthy of protecting after all.

There was a sudden lack of trees, and he saw the river valley perhaps another hundred yards or so in front of him, with a similar distribution on the other side. He could tell from the branch he stood on that the valley was rather wide, and he could hear the flowing current of the river if he concentrated hard enough. As far as he could see there was no alternate crossing natural or otherwise. It was actually quite a nice view, with the sun setting in the west creating a nice array of shadows among the trees.

"We're at the border of Kusa, Taki, and Iwa." The female genin, Natsuko, said, and it was the first thing besides her name that Naruto could recall her saying.

"If we set up camp nearby, and start patrolling tomorrow, then we'll see the bridge in about four days if we're being thorough." Tadashi said, and Naruto was beginning to get the notion that the kids were very professional for genin. Probably more professional than him, come to think of it. Then again, professionalism was one of the most overrated shinobi skills, if his personal experiences and training under Jiraiya taught him anything. Of course there was a time for it; such as at council meetings or when serving as Hokage, but what difference did it really make on missions? Besides that, a thought occurred to him.

"There are other shinobi assigned just to the bridge, right? It seems too important to leave unsupervised." They would hardly be enough to deter anything overly serious anyway but being so far away did not seem very good.

"Of course; Ayashi-sama has made sure there will always be a team there. It's our job to back them up, in an indirect way." Naruto nodded at Daisuke's words, glad to hear that they were not the sole group involved. Somehow, though he did not know them all too well, he did not think that being alone with a Genin Team at the outbreak of a war would be much fun. It was then that they came upon a slight clearing in the woods. "This should make a great place to camp. Everyone, you know what to do. Tadashi, get some firewood; Natsuko, set up the genin tents; Hitachi, prepare to cook. Naruto and I shall patrol the surrounding area. Does everyone understand?"

"Hai sensei!" they stated, and the man simply shook his head with a smirk on his face. Naruto, for his part, was quite sure that these genin were the exact opposite of his team; quiet and respectful. Then again, it could have something to do with the fact he was a foreign-nin or possibly the idea of war getting to them already. Or quite possibly that his own genin team was among the strangest in the history of the Elemental Nations; he would not throw that out as a possibility.

"Your team seems much more respectful and focused than the average genin-team" Naruto said, as he and Daisuke began their patrol. Naruto also decided to disperse about ten shadow clones to help ensure their safety. He did not want to make it obvious that he thought the kids were weird, so instead, disguised it as a compliment.

"Yes, they are quite the kids. It's funny, really. I've never been one for much formality or tradition, and I like to think I can be quite humorous, but I was assigned a group of kids who all value formality highly. Just the way it all works out, I guess. Hideo would love them, I'm sure of that, and his kids are a lot like me in a way. Talkative, at least. Perhaps not as good looking." Naruto chuckled a bit. He had gotten the idea that this guy would be a bit carefree from their first impressions, and it seemed like he was right. "But I guess the kids have a way of growing on you."

"So, they are behaving a bit differently just because I'm a foreign shinobi, aren't they?" The man had pretty much said so earlier, but Naruto wanted confirmation.

"Definitely, especially a foreign jounin. Especially the Hero of the Leaf. They don't want to say anything out of line, for fear of embarrassing themselves, a clan, or the village. Personally, you don't seem like the type of guy to let a genin get to ya, but you'd be surprised." Naruto laughed at this. While he was definitely not the kind to be seriously offended by anyone, in fact he would probably be goading the poor shinobi on, he could imagine what it would be like for one of them to say the wrong thing to someone like Neji before he changed. Or, much worse, they were to talk badly about the Philosophy of Youth.

"I understand; in fact, I can already think of a few people who would act like that. Better safe than sorry, I suppose." They moved in silence as he thought about his new companions. Daisuke seemed like a decent enough guy, rather talkative with a bit of a sense of humor. He seemed to have the respect of his genin, though Naruto was not quite sure how hard that was with the way those kids behaved. In the end, he felt like there were definitely worse teams that he could have been assigned to work with for the mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you will find that the OCs are, in fact, characters and not just random placeholders to move the story along and not completely random people who obviously don't belong in the Narutoverse. I've had that problem in a few stories I've read; everything will be fine, but as soon as OCs are introduced it's like quality just takes a nose dive and crashes into the ground. I feel rather confident that it will not be the case in this chapter or in this story. I hope, for returning readers, that with this chapter you've continued to enjoy the story. For new readers, I hope that you have enjoyed it thus far.
> 
> As always, thank you for reading. Please feel free to kudos/comment/bookmark.


	5. Escalation

They had awoken early in the morning, with Tadashi and a Naruto shadow clone having taken the last watch of the night. Naruto had gotten used to leaving at least one clone on watch during many of his missions, and he was sure that the genin did not mind having a little bit of company throughout the night. Additionally, even if he was willing to trust the Kusa-nin, they were still shinobi and he was still a shinobi so having a shadow clone to watch over himself while he was sleeping was probably a good idea. When he was sleeping normally, a shadow clone being dispelled suddenly from dying would wake him up every time whenever he got the memory. After all, you could never be too careful when surrounded by ninja.

For three days and three nights, the mission was entirely without intrigue. Team Daisuke, with Naruto tagging along, made a slow path up the river, patrolling back and forth in an effort to assure maximum security. Thus far, they had not seen anything of particular interest. To Naruto, it was a little bit worrying. With all the reports of Iwa-nin being seen more frequently along the border, and even crossing it, for him to have seen nothing seemed like the calm before the storm. Thus far in the day they had been patrolling for several hours.

"Did you say you were or were not from a clan?" the kids had taken to asking increasingly personal questions, especially Hitachi. Naruto did not really mind and was glad to answer them; it meant that the genin were more comfortable around him than they initially had been.

"I guess technically I could be a part of the Uzumaki clan, but I don't think that really counts since they aren't an established group nowadays. I grew up as an orphan and lived by myself from the time I was six years old so I'm pretty sure I do not count as a clan member of any kind."

"Wait, Uzumaki? But you don't have red hair like..." Hitachi was quickly interrupted by Daisuke

"Your hair is blonde; the Uzumaki are renowned for having red hair, is what I believe Hitachi was asking. Right, Hitachi?" the boy nodded, and though Naruto picked up that something was going on in front of him, decided not to push the subject now. It interested him though; surely, before then, the kids had already known his name was Uzumaki; perhaps they had just thought he was given the name as opposed to being born into it? Or maybe they were trying to discuss something more about it now that they were more comfortable but Daisuke intervened?

"Yeah, I get the hair from my dad."

"Who's the toughest enemy that you fought?"

"Well, I guess the easy answer would be Pein; after all, he had the Rinnegan and nobody else in the village could stop him. On my very first mission, however, I fought against a guy named Haku, who traveled with Zabuza Momochi. It was tough because I had met him before the fight and had come to think of him as a friend, and we had a lot in common. Not only all that stuff, though; he was strong enough to have almost killed me and a teammate." There did not seem to be any harm in answering their questions; besides, anything that could help pass the time would be appreciated. He still had ten days of patrol left to do before he'd go back to Kusa, and even then he did not yet have orders to leave. It was tough, not knowing whether or not Tsunade had waken up yet.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Hitachi asked, a mischievous glint being shot toward Natsuko all of a sudden. He wanted to laugh a bit at the genin heckling one another, though in truth, the question made him slightly uncomfortable.

It was funny how the world found a way to change in the blink of an eye. One second, Naruto was talking with some genin and thinking about how everyone was holding up back in Konoha. Whether or not Tsunade was awake, the situation with Kumo, if Sakura had been taking better care of herself, and what everyone else was doing. Were they doing missions or were they rebuilding the village? The next second, the five of them stumble upon obvious signs of combat. Kunai on the ground, craters in the ground likely from explosions, scratch marks on the trees, broken limbs, blood spatters everywhere. Signs of a brief yet intense engagement among shinobi.

"Alright team, we need to stay calm. There is a high likelihood that Iwa teams engaged friendly shinobi in combat, but we must not jump to conclusions. We need to be cautious moving forward." Even though Daisuke was putting on a more stoic front, Naruto could tell from the look on his face and the slight shakiness of his voice that the Kusa jounin was rattled. It was hard to blame the man, since the scene they were looking at could indeed be the start of the next Great Shinobi War. Naruto himself was unsure how to feel about the sudden revelation so simply resolved to continue forward.

They followed the signs of battle and the blood trails, eventually coming to a small clearing. There, they saw three dead shinobi and, from the headbands, it was obvious that they were Kusa-nin. Looking around, there were signs of a very brief engagement. If it were a head on shinobi brawl, then there would almost certainly be more damage caused to the surrounding area; somehow, it was less damaged than the area they had stumbled upon minutes earlier. This indicated that it was likely a second team of Iwa-nin that was waiting for them. Walking up to one of the bodies, he looked for the fatal injury. He had cuts and bruises on his arms, but nothing too severe. On his back, however, there was a piercing blow of some kind through his torso.

"If I had to guess, I would say that Iwa-nin engaged these Kusa-nin in the nearby forests. These shinobi attempted to make a fighting retreat, likely in order to inform someone of higher rank. Unfortunately for them, it appears that a different team of Iwa-nin then laid an ambush at this location and the Kusa-nin were caught from two sides and quickly eliminated." What a shame it was, these shinobi cut down in their prime. They had not even gotten to go down fighting, instead being ambushed on two occasions.

"So, they herded them, and slaughtered them!" Nobody bothered trying to correct Hitachi, because they could tell that he was correct. Naruto knew it was an effective way of fighting, and it was probably well-planned by the Iwa-nin, but something about it still gave him a disgusted feeling. There was no doubt in his mind about it: this was an act of war. And if Iwa was willing to go to war with Kusa, then they were also going to war with Konoha. If they were willing to attack Kusa in Kusa territory already, then it meant they were probably confident.

"Well well, I told you that there would be more of them." A voice rung out from the tree-line, and suddenly, three Iwa-nin appeared on a tree branch seemingly out of nowhere. Apparently they had been expecting them to follow the signs of combat into this area. Naruto mentally cursed at himself because he should have known; why else would they have left the bodies lying around? If they wanted the attack kept a secret they could have moved the corpses and covered up most of the collateral damage. It was very fortunate that they were confident enough to reveal themselves before attacking.

"I thought the plan was to lay an ambush? Arrogance kills you know!" One of the other Iwa-nin seemingly scolded his apparent teammate, who simply rolled his eyes.

"Oh please, like we could lose against some Kusa shinobi! Look at them! They've got three kids!" Naruto looked from the nin back to Team Daisuke. The three genin were frozen up, fear on their faces, and he wondered if they had ever been in a true combat situation. Sometimes he had to remind himself that not every genin squad ended up fighting highly ranked missing-nin every other mission. Most normal genin shinobi their age were going to relatively safe villages overseeing protection for some rich family or clearing bandits who had gotten a bit too strong or deadly; not fighting the Demon of the Mist. Even Daisuke looked frightened, though he was clearly more ready for a fight than the rest of his team.

"They have a Konoha-nin. And he looks familiar." The third shinobi said, getting his two teammates to focus on Naruto. At this point, he knew that he had to make a decision. Having the enemy recognize him and allowing them to make the first move could prove an extremely costly decision, especially with his Kusa teammates seeming a bit frozen and fearful. So, the wise thing to do was strike first; it was clear already from the way they had killed the prior team that Iwa was not going to take it easy on them, and he had to assume that this was a conflict where only one side could walk away with their lives.

"Yeah, ya know, he kinda does." The shinobi were visibly leering at him, and he knew that it was time for a bit of a preemptive strike. The fact that they had not yet recognized him gave him a huge advantage in any fight with them, and it would be foolish to not seek to use such an advantage. Without a second more warning, Naruto jumped toward the three Iwa-nin whose eyes went wide with surprise for a second at the unexpected action.

"Rasengan!" he shouted, the blue orb spinning rapidly in his hand. The enemy shinobi were wise enough to evade the attack, and, seconds later, his hand hit the branch they were previously standing on and shattered it into countless tiny pieces. He had not assumed that the attack would land; he simply wanted to start an engagement to get the enemy shinobi thinking about combat and not his identity. Luckily, the attack succeeded in having a secondary effect: the enemy were separated, at least momentarily. It seemed that two of the shinobi had jumped backwards while the other jumped to the left.

"Daisuke, I need you and your team to handle him" he said, pointing to the lone shinobi. "I can handle these two." There was a part of him, somewhere in the back of his mind, that knew Daisuke was technically in-charge of the mission; however, he ignored it completely in favor of trusting his instincts. They had always gotten him through in tough situations and it would be silly not to trust them here. He saw the man nod. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Ten clones appeared beside him, facing toward the lone shinobi and enforcing the idea that the three of them would not be reuniting anytime soon while the original glared at the duo of enemies in front of him. The lone enemy seemed to take a second to process everything before making a hasty retreat backwards. Team Daisuke pursued and the shadow clones dismissed, leaving Naruto alone with the two Iwa-nin.

"Well, that was unexpected. Maybe even clever. Still, a jounin of Iwa is more than a match for some Kusa genin team. And two jounin of Iwa can handle any Konoha-nin."

"So, should I take this to mean that Iwa is declaring war?" He wanted to remove all doubt from the fight and from his mind. It was obvious that all the signs pointed to him being in the beginning stages of a large-scale conflict, but there was a lingering voice of doubt somewhere in his mind. He didn't want it to be true, but at the same time, he couldn't try to hide from the obvious. No matter how much he wanted there to be peace in the world, facts were facts. It was strange to see the two enemies smirk at him, seemingly self-confident. Naruto wondered if it was self-confidence from already having defeated the prior Kusa-nin.

"It's about time we put Konoha back in its place. Ever since the last war you people have been acting like it's your job to mingle in everyone else's business. Well, Tsuchikage-sama finally had enough of it." Naruto barely kept himself from sighing. How was it even possible to hold a grudge for two decades, especially a grudge that was going to end up getting your loved ones killed and force you to kill others? For the moment, he would have to ignore that; he had to finish these guys off then reunite with Daisuke. If his earlier guess was correct, there would be at least one more team of Iwa-nin. And if this was the start of an invasion, who knew how many more there could be after that.

"Earth Style: Rising Stone Spears!" It seemed like the enemy were also not ones to waste time and wanted to get things started immediately. He felt the ground under him rumble only for a moment before jumping into the air. A split-second later, spikes emerged from where he used to be standing.

"Earth Style: Mud Bullet!" The other shinobi's mouth expanded and he beat his chest, forcing a large chunk of hardened mud to shoot directly toward him. Thinking quickly, Naruto created four shadow clones who appeared directly in front of him to absorb the damage. Landing back on the ground, he immediately created a dozen more shadow clones who pulled a kunai out from their pouches, making sure to cover the formula written on the handles as they charged at the enemy-nin.

"Earth Style: Battalion Spear Charge!" A large amount of spear-tipped projectiles raised from the ground and launched themselves at the quickly charging clones. Naruto got the impression that this was the jutsu that most likely killed the Kusa-nin they had found earlier. Although a few of the clones were incapable of escaping the attack, the rest of them managed to get in to taijutsu range, where the Iwa-nin began to engage them in fist-to fist combat. Naruto had the distinct feeling that his clones were being underestimated. In a way, it felt unfair that the Iwa-nin truly had no idea what was about to happen to them. He searched for the chakra of the kunais and quickly felt the connections. He could feel the nine in front of him as well as one more, somewhere back to the west. Briefly, he attempted to connect to Kakashi's kunai but it appeared that his theory was correct and that the copy-nin was out of range. It was good to know that he was right but he would need to test exactly how far the Hiraishin could extend in the future. With a moment of focus, he disappeared in a flash of yellow light. He reappeared in another flash, right next to a kunai and arms length away from a very shocked Iwa-nin. The enemy, however, was not going to be given a moment's reprieve. They had been all too willing to start this fight, and now he would be all too willing to end it. "Rasengan!" he shouted, slamming a quickly formed blue sphere into the enemy's stomach, their hands having been distracted by the taijutsu engagement. The orb ground into the opponent before exploding in a blast of chakra and knocking them a few feet away. With one dead, he disappeared again.

Reappearing once more next to a clone and somewhat to the side of the remaining shinobi, Naruto finished the man off quickly with another Rasengan. It was amazing how quickly he had managed to kill two enemy jounin; the fight had lasted maybe two minutes or so. The Hiraishin was truly a terrifying weapon. Looking at their bodies, he shivered slightly. They had been so confident, so sure in their abilities. And here they were, lying on the ground, never returning to whatever families or friends they may have had. Two enemy shinobi. Two shinobi, each with complicated lives of their own; likely both having people waiting at home for them to return. Yet, they would never return. They had been killed; killed by him. What were their crimes? They had none; just two shinobi following orders, taking the pride they had in their village and turning it into overconfidence on the battlefield.

Before he could allow himself to contemplate things further, he remembered Team Daisuke. He quickly honed in on the kunai's chakra and flashed to the location, where he immediately attempted to get his bearings. He appeared next to Daisuke, whom had his three genin behind him all in defensive stances. In front of him, about twenty feet or so on tree branches, were four Iwa-nin. A few of these enemy were rather young, although Naruto had to remind himself that they were still around his age, so he assumed they were Chuunin strength but would try not to underestimate them in combat.

"Yellow Flash!" one of the opposing shinobi said, before they all looked at each other and proceeded to* retreat. Naruto, for his part, was surprised by the action. Sure, he realized that the Bingo Book entry said for shinobi to not engage him under certain circumstances, but there was a difference between reading it and seeing fully-trained adult ninja fleeing. Seems that, despite their rhetoric, the Iwa-nin did believe that discretion was the better part of valor. He stayed in a defensive stance for a moment, before figuring that they had actually gone away.

"It's a good thing that you showed up when you did; he led us right toward a back-up team. I'm not sure we could have managed. But what about those shinobi you were fighting?"

"Dead. Well, probably. I didn't really check." Naruto saw the genin's eyes widen and even Daisuke seemed a bit shocked. He did not understand why; sure, he had not really wanted to kill them but he had to win the fight while he had the advantage of surprising them with the Hiraishin. If the enemies had recognized his face from the bingo book, they probably would have been more careful of clones trying to fight with kunai, and it would have been more challenging. While normally he might be in the mood for such a challenge, it'd be a bit too careless with a genin squad relying on him.

"That quickly?" Tadashi asked, and Naruto understood now that they were more surprised in the speed of the fight than the conclusion of it. He nodded, even though the question was probably rhetorical.

"So, what happened with you guys? Any injuries?" It didn't look like anyone had been injured, and not much time had passed since they had separated, but he felt a bit protective over the genin since they were really in an unfair situation for them.

"No; there was barely any fighting at all. Just a few defensive jutsu before you arrived." Naruto nodded, glad to hear it.

"I can't believe it. Iwa-nin are invading again. Konoha didn't even have the manpower to send a real shinobi team; what are we going to do?" There was a panic in the nin's eyes, and Naruto could tell the poor genin was beginning to panic as the adrenaline of opponents to face wore out.

"Calm down Hitachi. At a time like this, all we can do is our job. As your sensei, I need you to trust me when I tell you this: No matter how much is lost, you've never been beaten until you surrender." The boy nodded, seeming to have calmed down at his sensei's words. Naruto thought that they sounded like something the Old Man might have said at some point.

"What do we do now sensei?"

"Well, I believe that we should continue in our mission. We have an elite foreign jounin with us and a messenger bird can carry the news back to Kusa. The greatest service we can do for our village is to do as we were assigned. Does that sound reasonable to everyone?"

All the genin responded in the affirmative, but Naruto did not. "Do you think that maybe you guys should go deliver the news directly to Ayashi-sama while I head to Kanabi in order to see the situation? I mean, this could be a full-scale war that we're in the middle of. This mission was assigned as a patrol, but a patrol cannot stop an invasion. Plus, I'm not sure how experienced you guys are as a squad, ya know? Iwa could be sending elite units here."

"With all respect, Naruto, surely you cannot expect us to abandon a mission simply because the parameters have changed? Our village needs us, out here, to help figure out and stop whatever exactly is going on. We cannot be sure of Iwa's true intent just yet."

Naruto sighed, figuring that Daisuke had made a good point. If it were Konoha in immediate danger, would he flee the frontline? No, not unless given very specific and convincing orders on why he should do so. That was part of the reason why it never crossed his mind that he should be the one to leave; Kusa was an ally and, as such, in need of protection just as much as Konoha. Yes, he would fight for Kusa as if it were Konoha itself for the two's fates were now aligned. Thus, he could understand the stance that the man had taken.

"Right, of course. Guess I was just worried about you guys, is all. Of course I could not expect you to want to do anything besides trying to do the most for your village. I'm the same way, I suppose." he offered, with a slight smile.

"You're a lot different than the other Uzumaki" Hitachi said, before his eyes widened as if realizing what he had said. Daisuke looked at the young man with an underlying scowl but tried to keep a straight face.

"What other Uzumaki?" he asked, curious as to both what family he could have possibly had in the village and why it seemed like it was being kept a secret from him. This was the second time now that the Uzumaki name had been brought up with strange reactions from all of those around him. "Okay guys, seriously, before we're forced to fight more Iwa-nin and our lives are put in danger again, I want to know what Uzumaki you're talking about and why you're keeping it from me."

Daisuke coughed into his fist, undoubtedly a sign ordering his genin to let him answer. "Well, you see, when Uzushiogakure was destroyed at the start of the Third Great Shinobi War, the surviving members of the clan spread throughout the continent in various ways. One of the members came to Kusa, asking for refuge for herself and her daughter. Our leader at the time accepted under one condition: the woman become a medic-nin who put the village before herself. This was due to the fact that the woman had a strange kekkai genkai: the ability to heal almost any injury with a single bite to her skin. She accepted the condition, though after a surprise attack rendered many injuries to both the shinobi and citizenry of Kusa, she worked herself literally to death and left her daughter an orphan. This made her a bit of a hero to the village, a foreign woman who gave her own life in aid to others. Anyway, her daughter was born with the same ability and thus was also trained to be a shinobi. She proved to be a promising young genin, whom not only possessed her mother's healing abilities but also displayed a keen ability to sense chakra. One day, however, she abandoned her oath to the village, and Karin Uzumaki has been a missing-nin ever since."

A part of him had known, of course, that the Uzumaki remnants had spread throughout the Elemental Nations, with none going to Konoha due to feeling betrayed. The thought that he could actually meet one of them, however, was something that he always wanted to push back as far as possible. There was some part of him that thought if he had gone this far in his life without meeting any of his clan relatives then he would be just as happy to go the rest of his life without meeting them. A part of that changed when he began to believe, for a moment, that he was so close to meeting one of them here in Kusagakure. Someday, he resolved, he would do his best to meet one of them, be it Karin or somebody else.

"Alright, thanks. Nothing too complicated there, really. Had a clan member here who betrayed the village and became a missing-nin. Not sure why you bothered to try to keep that a secret."

"We just didn't want to bother you with such information; after all, who wants to hear all about a village's missing-nin. And the last thing we'd ever want is to relate you to a traitorous missing-nin. Now, Ayashi-sama is relying on us to get our mission done so I suggest we get a move on. Kanabi Bridge is not that far away."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter. As always, thank you for reading. Please feel free to kudos, comment, bookmark, or continue onward.


	6. Occurrence at Kanabi Bridge

He prepared himself mentally for the task ahead, smiling at the challenge presented before him. It was not everyday that someone like him got the opportunity to do something that was truly important; most of the time, they were simply used as cannon fodder in the heat of battle. Though he knew his time on the planet was quite limited, there was a certain degree of freedom in accepting that simple truth. In his short time in existence, he had decided upon one thing: he would be as useful as possible. Right now, he had been entrusted with a singular goal and was ready to execute it. He felt the kunai spinning in his hand, feeling the chakra from it. He reached into the pouch, grabbing five more, holding all six in total between his fingers. He threw it toward the top of the bridge, with a smile.

In a flash of yellow, he appeared slightly above the bridge and could feel the heads of the Iwa-nin turning towards him. Good. He could make out already hand-signs being made so knew he had not even one second to hesitate. The reaction speed of these enemies seemed to be rather good; definitely not genin-level reaction time. He reached out and grabbed the kunai he had thrown, immediately throwing it to the ground and appearing in front of an Iwa-nin who looked afraid. Before the nin could react, he was hit with a strong uppercut. Immediately afterwards he jumped to the left, dodging earth projectiles of some kind. Taking a quick glance around, he could see that there had to be about thirty or so people just on the bridge. He threw two of the remaining Kunai down the South-end of the bridge with two more going towards the North. They were not intended to strike, but rather, to spread-out.

With a speed that most shinobi would never imagine having to go up against, he flashed between the various kunai, dodging a series strikes and jutsu while delivering mild attacks against the Iwa-nin. Thankfully, the enemy were limited in their jutsu arsenal due to the risk of friendly fire. His goal was not to kill these particular shinobi, for there were too many for him to accomplish this task, but rather to anger them. An angry enemy was not a rational one, and it would not take long for his use of the Hiraishin combined with being unscratched to cause some frustration. And so, he went back and forth, briefly engaging enemy shinobi focusing most of his efforts on not getting hit. After a couple of minutes of this, he moved on to the next stage of the plan.

Throwing a kunai into the air, he felt out the chakra signature and in another moment was himself up into the air, grabbing the kunai immediately and slinging it off of the bridge, into Iwa territory, on clear grounds. An instant later, and he went from being high in the air above the bridge to being on the ground some hundreds of meters away. The Iwa-nin, of course, had been watching and did not relent in attempting to attack him. There were more now, coming from the forests not too far away as well as the bridge. Never before had he seen so many hostile shinobi in one place; in a way, it was terrifying, yet at the same time, it was exhilarating. Now it was time to do something different. Once again, he threw a kunai high into the air and appeared next to it. Instead of disappearing somewhere else, however, he pulled five more kunai out of his pocket and threw them in a wide spread toward the ground.

"Tajuu Kage Shuriken Jutsu!" he yelled, as the five kunai multiplied into hundreds and peppered the ground in kunai. It took a lot out of him, to use the jutsu on such a scale, and immediately upon feeling the chakra feedback from the hundreds of kunai he felt his head begin to hurt and had a general sense of being overwhelmed. If there were any chance he could continue to excel at his mission, he was going to need get past it. The battlefield was now his; he could move almost anywhere on it in the blink of an eye. And so he did, flashing between kunai nearly instantaneously and landing repeated taijutsu and kunai strikes on the Iwa-nin spread throughout the battlegrounds. He was feeling tired already, a feeling he had not even been sure he was capable of feeling.

"What are you idiots doing!" an authoritative female voice yelled out. "None of you are qualified to fight a Hiraishin-user, especially not once he's created a field of kunai! Retreat!" The Iwa-nin began to flee backwards in the woods quickly, though Naruto attempted to strike as many of them as he could in the time it would take them to follow through with the seeming order. The bridge had been mostly cleared of Iwa-nin, except for those who had most likely been explicitly told not to leave it. That's when a girl exited the forest, looking right at him. She had short-black hair, a confidence in her walk that made him know from instinct alone that she was strong, and, quite oddly, pink-colored eyes. She was smirking at him.

"Oh? Happy to see me?" He taunted a bit, catching his breath. Having exhausted himself already from the rather extensive and unusual battle that had taken place, he was not feeling entirely too confident in dealing with an Iwa-nin who clearly wanted the chance to take on the Hiraishin.

"You have no idea. I cannot believe I have the luck of running into you so early on in this endeavor. All my life, I've heard about the deadliness of the Hiraishin and seen my grandfather curse the jutsu into the dirt. Well, now I get to see what it's all about." She maintained a casual stance as Naruto continued to eye her closely. Without warning, she took a deep breath. "Lava Release: Lave Flow!" she said, lava bursting from her lips and spewing in a stream onto the battlefield.

Encountering a lava user had definitely not been something on his agenda. The attack decimated the ground, and the substance itself was hot enough to disperse his kunai when it came into contact. Next thing he knew, the woman charged straight across the lava toward him, casually running on its surface as though it had been nothing. He could see that the lava was slowing but not stopping and would continue to destroy the jutsu-created kunai. Normally, shadow kunai were strong enough to withstand glancing blows and contact with the enemy, but they were definitely not made to deal with a lava-style technique. She took the offensive, attempting to use taijutsu and doton jutsu to land a hit on him. Instead of engaging with her, however, he continued to use the Hiraishin to avoid her pursuit.

For five minutes the fight went on this way, him avoiding her with relative ease even as she attempted to engage in some sort of straightforward fight. He could tell that she was not necessarily putting all of her effort into the assault but was holding something back likely in case he managed to use Hiraishin to get behind her or to do something else unpredictable. She was holding back, waiting for him to make a move while he was simply avoiding her; briefly, he wondered how boring the fight between the two of them was. Despite all the confidence she had seemed to have heading into the battle, it was clear that she was attempting to feel him out and build a familiarity with his combat behaviors before committing more to attacking. Even though it was not the most intensive fight of his career, using the Hiraishin constantly while dodging attacks was taking a toll on his already tired state and he was exhausted by this point. He created a lot of distance then fell down on one knee, panting. She approached him with a smirk on her face but did not get too close.

"You know, really, I expected more from you. To wear yourself out so quickly without even landing a punch is pathetic."

He smiled at her. "You didn't land a punch either, you know."

"True enough; does not seem like it hurt me this time." He knew that he had managed to get under her skin a bit with his remark because the smirk on her face had died out.

Suddenly, from near the bridge behind him, he heard an incredibly loud sound as if a raging wind and could practically feel powerful chakra emanating from the location. He smiled brightly, then, knowing that his task had been done and that his existence had not been for nothing.

"The boss will be proud of me."

"Huh? What are you…"

'Naruto' vanished in a puff of smoke.

* * *

"Rasenshuriken!" Naruto yelled, the most powerful jutsu in his entire arsenal wielded in his right hand. Although he had promised Tsunade not to use the technique on account of how dangerous it was, he knew there was some way to truly master the attack. Unfortunately, he had not had much time to give it any additional work on account of learning the Hiraishin, and even mid-air he could feel the intense pain spreading through his arm due to the uncontrolled wind chakra. For the present, it was the only way to ensure that the bridge would be destroyed. Based on what Daisuke had told him about the Kanabi Bridge, it was built sturdily and he could not risk losing his one opportunity of surprise.

He had sent a clone to clear out most of the shinobi on the bridge; not by engagement, but by distraction. Using Iwa's fear and hatred of the Hiraishin to his advantage in order to divert them from the main strike. Meanwhile, he had advanced through the Kusa side of the forests at a slow pace trying to prevent any unnecessary engagements with Iwa-nin in order to get close enough to ensure he would not lose control of the jutsu before making contact. As he did that, Team Daisuke would be establishing a safe perimeter a good distance away where they would then meet-up and head back to Kusa following the bridge's destruction. They were not entirely happy with their role in the bridge assault, wanting instead to play a more direct part, but he had managed to assure them that it would be easier and safer if they ensured a safe escape. A part of him was made extremely nervous by all of this since it was his plan and anything negative that happened as a result of it was his responsibility.

The S-Ranked jutsu made clean contact with the side of the bridge, digging into it as Naruto released it from his grasp. He fell backwards, toward the ground, as the attack dug its way deep into the reinforced concrete of the structure. He could hear the concrete and other materials being ground away by the intense wind jutsu. Landing on the ground, he looked at his arm to see a series of cuts and bruises all down it. It was not as bad as it had been following the Kakazu fight, thankfully, due to the fact that he had only used one of the attack here compared to several in that encounter. Randomly, a thought occurred to him to help hasten the healing in case he should need to fight again.

He called upon a rather small amount of the Kyuubi's chakra, which he had been made to have easier access to during his training trip with Jiraiya, and attempted to focus it into his right arm. Suddenly, his arm became encased in red chakra as often happened when he drew upon the fox's power. The pain quickly began to subside and he let out a sigh of relief. Maybe this was one of the ways it could be possible to prevent the Rasenshuriken from tearing apart his arm? It was incredibly dangerous to risk using the power, but if it enabled him to use his most powerful jutsu, then maybe it was worth it. There would be time to think about it later; for now, he flashed out of the river valley and back into the woods, where he had a small force of fifty clones prepared.

There was a huge explosion of chakra as the attack finally destabilized in the bridge, the densely packed wind chakra bursting violently in every direction. Chunks of concrete were thrown in every direction, with one going nearly thirty feet into the air. He couldn't help but smile a bit as he watched the ninjutsu in action. An S-ranked jutsu of such immense power, and he had invented it. He was the only person in the entirety of the Elemental Nations capable of performing it. As the bridge collapsed around it, a giant chakra dome formed in the middle that continued expanding as more and more of the structure was destroyed. After another thirty-seconds, the jutsu was finished. In its wake, over half of the Kanabi Bridge had been totally destroyed, a huge portion missing in the middle that would undoubtedly take a substantial time investment to repair.

"Alright clones; teams of five. Five teams defend this area from any vengeful Iwa-nin; the rest of you sweep into the woods looking for those who have already crossed. For Konoha!" They gave an enthusiastic 'Hai' before heading out, and yet again he was reminded of the incredible power of the shadow clone jutsu. Reconnaissance, Training, Diversion, Brute Numbers; the jutsu seemed to constantly keep a world of opportunities open. If just one of his shadow clones had proven capable of distracting the Iwa-nin a few minutes, would fifty of them each supplied with a fair bit of chakra be able to actually hold their own? How strong, exactly, was one of his shadow clones? Obviously they were not as strong as him, since they could not take a hit, but were they B-ranked, A-ranked? Something else to add on to the ever growing list of things he wanted to know in order to be a better shinobi. He mentally searched for the farthest chakra signal and flashed to Team Daisuke's location.

"Kanabi Bridge destroyed" he said to the spread out team of four, though of course he was situated directly next to Daisuke who, from the surprised look on his face, was not quite used to the suddenness of the Hiraishin's transportation.

"Wow, you're really something else aren't you? Glad you're on our side" Daisuke said, with a smile. "Alright team, it's time we head back to Kusagakure and report to Ayashi-sama with everything we've seen and done."

* * *

By the time the five of them arrived back to Kusa, it was turning to nighttime and all of them were tired. For Team Daisuke, it had undoubtedly been an incredibly stressful day to have to deal with the seeming invasion of their homeland but they were also quite tired due to how quick of a pace that was encouraged for the travel back. Naruto was worn out a bit due to having used the Rasenshuriken, but most of his exhaustion was undoubtedly from his brief use of the Kyuubi's chakra on his arm. Bringing out that chakra always had a way to affect him much more than anything else. There was also the fact that he had lost fifty shadow-clones worth of chakra, though they had seemed to prove more than a handful for their opponents.

It did not take long at all for them to reach the head governmental building and, to Naruto's immense surprise, there was not considerably more activity than there had been when he was previously here. That could only mean one thing: someway, somehow, Ayashi had not yet been informed of the attacks by Iwagakure. If he had been, then there would surely be many more people running through the building attempting to organize a strategy to fight the opponent. They reached Ayashi's office and knocked, finding themselves immediately admitted.

"Ayashi-sama" Daisuke began, getting the man's attention, "I'm afraid that I have some incredibly urgent news."

"Yes, what is it?" the man said, looking extremely worried.

"On our mission to patrol the Tsuyoi River, we encountered Iwa-nin that had murdered a group of our own shinobi. After a brief period of combat between ourselves and two teams of Iwa-nin in that area, we were able to drive them away. Afterwards, we decided to check on Kanabi Bridge, to ensure that it had not fallen into enemy hands. When we first got eyes upon the Bridge, however, it was clear to us that there were many more shinobi upon it than we would be able to station. After confirming that Iwa-nin were in total control of the area, Uzumaki-san proceeded to destroy the Bridge in an attempt to prevent Iwa from using it. Sir, we believe that there is indisputable evidence that we are experiencing an invasion from Iwagakure."

The village head nodded, eyes closed, seeming to take in every word and attempting to make sense of it. He sighed. "I understand; genin, please leave the room. We may have to discuss things that are a bit above your pay-grade." Hitachi, Natsuko, and Tadashi left without any fuss, seeming to have little desire to discuss the very real war that seemed to be ready to unravel around them. "Now then, while we have much to discuss, there is something that we need to take care of first."

The man stood up, walking around the desk and taking a few steps toward them. "I must express my gratitude for everything you have done in my service so far" he said with a smile while getting slowly closer. Naruto began to feel every instinct in his body instruct him that something was not quite right, but he could not actually process what was wrong. It was then that he saw Daisuke briefly look past them, to his bodyguards at the back of the room, then back to them. Yes, something was absolutely horrendously wrong. "Thank you" the man said, with a bow. Suddenly there was a burst of action from behind them; Naruto immediately ducked and attempted to perform a sweeping leg kick out of self-defense. When his opponent attempted to grab his leg with both of his hands, he felt two needles prick into his skin. He backed off, to the corner of the room, as he saw Daisuke getting stabbed in the back and dropping to the ground.

"Wha-how-why?" he asked to Ayashi, now in a fighting stance. Though, admittedly, feeling a little bit light-headed.

"Incredibly fast acting poison; one-hundred percent lethality. Used only for cases of certain kills in order to prevent anyone finding an antidote. Daisuke never was one of my bigger supporters so having him die here was a bit of a net positive. Killing you is also a major plus; I can't even imagine how much Iwa will appreciate it."

If he were in control of himself, he would have noticed that his leg had gone numb. At the moment, however, it was hard to process that due to the absolutely blinding rage he was experiencing. He was doing everything he could think of to control it, but as he kept looking at Daisuke's body, motionless on the floor and soon to be a corpse, he could not experience anything other than anger for the man who had been betrayed by someone he was supposed to be able to rely on. Although shinobi may die following the orders of their leader, for a leader to deliberately order one's death simply out of convenience was inexcusable. He felt himself grating his teeth together.

"You're the leader of Kusagakure; an ally of the Leaf. Why would you do this?" he spat out, furiously wanting an answer. There was an attempt to calm himself, but then he remembered that Hitachi, Tadashi, and Natsuko would never see their sensei again.

"The Leaf's not the right side to be on right now. Weakened from an attack with the world ready to take advantage. Losing diplomatic influence, not able to support its allies, struggling to rebuild its own hidden village. It is clear, to me, that Konoha is the wrong alliance. Being an opportunist, I saw the chance to take my village straight into the Top Five. So I set up this little invasion ploy with Iwa, to draw in a few Konoha-nin and to dispose of a few people who may not approve of my actions. With Konoha and Suna out of the picture, or at least crippled, then not only would we immediately become one of the Five Great Ninja Villages, but the missions that we could begin to take over from them would allow us to comfortably stay in the position for the foreseeable future. And, for my wise leadership in a time of turmoil, I would become the Shodaime Kusakage! Now, do us all a favor and drop-dead already."

This man, in front of him, one of the Kage! A man willing to murder his own loyal shinobi, a man to whom an alliance meant nothing but convenience and was meant to be broken at any time! The entire idea was disgraceful to the extreme, and Naruto found himself seeing red in a way that he had not in a while. He had come here with the mission of aiding Kusa in any way possible, and what had happened? He had been betrayed! Daisuke had been betrayed! Konoha had been betrayed! And all because of the man in front of him, so confident that a poison would kill him that he'd talk about it all. It was now that he felt the fox's chakra beginning to envelop him, subconsciously being called upon by him but this time he would not fight it; instead, he immediately embraced it and called for more.

Moments later, Naruto went from trembling with anger – which Ayashi had assumed was the poison working its way from the leg – to being encased in glowing red chakra with two tails swishing behind him. Never in his entire life had he been in such complete agreement with the Kyuubi; the three others in the room with him were going to die. There was nothing more to it. With white-hot anger, he struck out at the two guards whom had attacked him and Daisuke. With such speed that the two surely did not comprehend what happened, he was behind them with a chakra tail enveloping each of their heads. With a quick twist, they were dead and their bodies were thrown forcefully into the walls, staining it with blood.

"J-jinchuriki… this is, this is unexpected" the man stumbled in fear, seeming only now to understand that he had misbehaved in some way since it was clear he was going to die. He took a few steps backward, as if attempting to put some space between them, but there was nowhere left to go after three steps and the beast stood before him snarling in a way that was menacing beyond any human ability.

"You...you… **DARE** to make a mockery of the Kage!" were the last words Ayashi ever heard before claws dug their way into his chest and slammed him against the wall, going deeper and deeper into him before his lungs were pierced entirely. He couldn't even scream as his life was drained by the oxygen deprivation and blood-loss. In a few minutes he had gone from ready to gloat about his grand scheme to finally break Kusagakure into the Top Five to being a corpse lying on the ground. Naruto looked at it in disgust, before realizing the sheer brutality of what he had done. He drew himself into his mindscape in order to think

Even in his own mind, however, he could not escape the rage that had consumed him. Even with Kyuubi's chakra not surrounding him in here, his sheer disdain for Ayashi's actions made him dwell on it. How could one man be so greedy, so cold, so arrogant, with so little care for integrity or honor? Sure, maybe he had met plenty of people who could fall into those categories, but none of them had ever been the leaders of an important Hidden Village!

In his anger, Naruto found himself aimlessly walking forward until he found himself walking toward the Kyuubi's cage within him. He saw no sign of the beast, though its chakra tainted the floor and gave the air a bit of a foul smell. It made sense; he had drawn upon its chakra twice in one day. But, if his mindscape was tainted with Kyuubi's chakra, did that mean his own thoughts were affected by the chakra? No, no, that couldn't be right; he was quite certain that he wanted to kill Ayashi of his own accord. Not everybody was meant to be saved, not everyone had some sort of light in them like Nagato that led to misguided actions. No, people like Ayashi, who were willing to use everyone to get what they want, who would betray anyone, who would put on a performance of caring, they could not be helped. The man had no intention of ever trying to better the world but only to better himself. As far as he was concerned, Ayashi may as well have been Orochimaru.

He was now standing directly in front of the gate and still saw no sign of the gargantuan beast. How far back, exactly, did things go past that gate? Then, he began focusing on something else entirely. The seal on the front of the gate. It was right in front of him, the seal that could free the Kyuubi from its confinement. What would happen if the Kyuubi were to be let free? It would probably go on some sort of rampage, destroying Kusa entirely before finding some other people to menace. So what, exactly, was the difference between a tailed beast and the rest of the world then? Why didn't they take people like the Tsuchikage and have them sealed away, to never kill again? He reached out a hand and touched the seal, tracing along the edge. When you thought about it, it hardly seemed fair that a tailed beast should be imprisoned for killing without reason when so many others were free to do it.

"Hey, I really think you should not do anything with that seal" a voice said from behind him, startling him greatly and interrupting his thoughts entirely.

"I wasn't doing anything I swear!" he said hastily, before getting a good look at the man who seemed to materialize out of nowhere. Suddenly, he found himself almost out of breath as he looked into the eyes of someone he knew there was never a chance of him meeting.

"Hello, Naruto." The man said, bright smile on his face, eyes closed, head tilted.

"D-Dad?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kurotsuchi makes a first, albeit brief, appearance; Kanabi Bridge is destroyed once more; turns out that Kusa's keen diplomatic tradition turned out to be a bit of a negative; Minato appears. A busy chapter, for sure, one that I hoped you all have enjoyed. Who could've guessed that Hiraishin would prove to be such an effective weapon for evasion and distraction? Probably most people but it was fun to write anyway! Rasenshuriken is definitely not "safe" by any means in its current state even with Kyuubi, but since when does Naruto care about "safe" when there's something important to be done?
> 
> As always, thank you for reading. Feel free to kudos, comment, bookmark, or simply continue on.


	7. Family Reunion

"D-Dad?" Naruto said, not quite believing his eyes. There, standing before him, was the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, Minato Namikaze. His father. It was strange really how his own father could look only about five or six years older than him.

"So, I see that means they told you about me after all. You know, I had my doubts." The man was smiling brightly as Naruto walked toward him. As he got closer, his father extended his arms as if to receive a hug. Perhaps, then, he was a bit surprised to receive a punch to the stomach.

"That's for the Kyuubi" he said, remembering all the trouble the fox had caused him throughout his life. From villagers to the Akatsuki, being a jinchuuriki had certainly been a pretty constant struggle for him. Granted, it was never actually the Kyuubi's fault so it was not really fair to get that upset about it. Perhaps, really, he kinda liked the idea of being able to punch his father. That made sense; he had just landed a sucker punch on the Yondaime himself! He smiled to himself, feeling good just from the thought of getting to rough-house a bit with his father like every other kid. He reached his arms around the other man, who was bent over from the unexpected hit, and wrapped him into a tight hug.

"And this is for Hiraishin. And, cause, I kinda just want to." The other man returned the embrace and, for a moment, Naruto let himself enjoy the sensation of being able to hug his father.

"You've thought about that punch a while, haven't you?" his dad said, seemingly not angry but perhaps a bit upset though not at him.

"I promised myself, not too long after I first learned of the Kyuubi, that if I should somehow ever get the chance then I would do it. Of course, I was a bit mad at the village for how they treated me and I had been betrayed by my sensei, and maybe being a Jinchuuriki is kinda cool in some ways, but a promise is a promise!" he was smiling now, as his father extended their arms and held him at arms-length.

"Hmm, so much like your mother. Vicious yet kind. I guess my last wish to have you treated like a hero didn't exactly work out as hoped, huh?" The man wore a sort of grimace, seemingly regretting what he had done.

"Well, not as you planned I'm sure. But don't worry about that! I'm the recently crowned Hero of the Leaf." Okay, he could not resist the urge to brag to his father about his accomplishments. Maybe, by his age, most people would have stopped but he had to make up for lost time. "So, don't take this the wrong way, but how are you here?"

"In my last moments, I guess I got a bit creative. I used my own chakra to create an emergency fail-safe just in case you ever started wanting to release the Kyuubi. I don't really have that long to talk; it was a small amount of chakra."

"I wasn't going to do it! I was, well, just thinking. If everyone else is free to kill and cause havoc, why not the Biju?"

"Well, for one, releasing it would kill you, and I don't really want my son to die. Call it overprotective I guess." Funnily enough, the man had a bit of a mischievous smile and Naruto got the idea that his father was quite the humorous person in his own right. "Second, I didn't really have much choice in the matter at the time. It was either seal the Kyuubi or everybody died. Maybe it felt wrong to seal a sentient being inside of my own son, who appears to be sentient as well, but there's an important lesson in it all: Sometimes, you have to do what's wrong to do the most right. Oh, but don't become some genocidal maniac because of that. It's really not applicable all that often."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I'll try not to think about it too much right now."

"Good. Now, I'm guessing that there's something that triggered all this thought. Why don't you tell your ol' dad about it?" His father seemed to be nothing but smiles, and it really had a way of making him feel good. His dad was clearly so excited to see him and it helped to kill all those thoughts he once had about his parents not wanting him. Sure, Sandaime and Tsunade could tell him that his dad would have loved him but it was entirely different to feel it. Of course, he knew he had a stupid grin on his face too.

"Well, you see, this issue started when I learned the Hiraishin. Immediately after I learned it, probably a little over two months ago, I had to use it to fight a Rinnegan-user named Nagato, who was the leader of a group of S-classed criminals that wanted to catch all of us Jinchuuriki. He managed to destroy a large part of the village, but I convinced him he was wrong and he brought everyone he killed back to life. Anyway, right after that, Iwa and Kumo started to act a bit too aggressive towards our allies in Kusa and Hoshi, and the council seems worried that it means we're about to go to war and that it has something to do with me learning Hiraishin. Kakashi-sensei and I were sent to Kusa in order to reinforce them, and we split up to the two most likely areas to be attacked. The team I was with found a dead Kusa squad and were ambushed, and we took that to mean Kusa was being invaded. We made our way to Kanabi Bridge, and I destroyed it with a Rasenshuriken. Oh, that's Rasengan combined with wind chakra. After that, we made our way back to Kusagakure and reported to the leader. He betrayed us, having both of his bodyguards attempt to poison myself and a Kusa jounin. They did it, but it didn't really work on me because of the Kyuubi. I used some Kyuubi chakra to kill him and his bodyguards, and now I'm here."

His father was looking at him kinda wide-eyed, and Naruto thought that he may have rambled a bit too much and not been clear enough. "You've led an eventful life, haven't you son?"

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Haha, how'd you guess?"

"Fatherly Instinct. Learning Hiraishin, fighting the Rinnegan, mastering the Rasengan. I couldn't be more proud." He felt like a five-year old kid, having his father say those words to him and his eyes lit up in pure delight. "I'm not too surprised to hear that Kusa's village leader would do such a thing; they were considered the sixth best village at the end of the Third War and it was probably just a matter of time before they had a leader who tried to be a bit too clever in moving up."

"Oh, hey, so, I just realized that I killed the leader of Kusa and that, in reality, I'm probably standing above his body with his blood on my hands. Shouldn't I take care of that problem real quick?"

"Hmmm, I'm pretty sure that, since we're in your mind, things are moving much more slowly in here than they are out there. Not a big deal."

"Ah, really? Okay then."

"Anything else happen in Konoha I should know about?"

"Well, Tsunade baa-chan's the Hokage but she's been out-of-action since the last attack."

"As much as I'm sure we'd both love to keep talking politics, I think I've got a good picture. Iwa and Kumo causing trouble, Kusa's turned traitor, Hokage out of action. It seems rough, but there is not much I can say about it without knowing more. I'm going to disappear soon and never show up again so I shouldn't really waste this time I'm given. You mentioned earlier that you just learned Hiraishin two months ago, correct?"

"Yeah; had this long training trip up in Mount Myoboku and everything."

"Mount Myoboku? Have you done Sage Training? I would guess that the way I designed the seal to work should make Senjutsu impossible."

"That's what Jiraiya said. Haven't tried it. So, Hiraishin?"

"Right; distracted, sorry. So much I wish I could hear. Anyway, I'm going to guess you've only learned the basics of the jutsu. Kunai formula and kunai-based teleportation, right?"

"Well, if you can call that basic."

"So, that means I can bet that there are two extremely effective uses for it that you have not quite figured out yet. Applying the formula to opponents with simple skin contact and the ability to teleport enemy jutsu like I did with one of the Kyuubi's attacks. Am I right?"

"I haven't really had the time to work on those yet, sadly. Been busy ever since I learned the jutsu, whether in rebuilding Konoha or in my mission to Kusa. Guess I do need to find some time somewhere to keep training."

"It's hard to describe how to apply the formula with physical contact; it took me a generous amount of work to figure it out. Let's see, oh, I know! Do you know how, when performing Summoning Jutsu, a string of Kanji appears temporarily that coincides with the release of the chakra?" His dad was not really asking him a question; he was no longer smiling. He was talking as a teacher does to a student, like Iruka-sensei had. "Basically, what you need to do, is to find a way to replicate the chakra pattern on the kunai with the chakra in your body then to release it in such a way that it results in the formula becoming a part of the person. Ideally, you want to use as little chakra as possible when doing this so that the opponent is less likely to detect anything. It may seem easy to replicate the formula doing hand-signs, and that's not a bad place to start, but you need to train yourself past using hand-signs in order for it to be truly effective."

"Okay, yeah, that makes sense I guess." Naruto almost wished that he had a notebook, but he was sure he could remember everything his father said during their first meeting, he was sure of it. Besides, this was taking place in his mind so how was it possible for him to forget?

"Now, in order to use it to deflect attacks, well, that's not actually part of the Hiraishin. I mean, sure, it's a possible use for it, but it is not integrated into it. The way I did it was actually simple. I concentrated chakra into my hands and extended a wave of chakra forward, expelling small amounts while keeping it connected to my hands. Do you know a Hyuuga? I recommend a Hyuuga for learning this. Anyway, when you feel confident that the attack has made contact with your chakra, you disconnect the chakra flow from one hand, Hiraishin away, and in the split-second you're using the Hiraishin, you move your other hand in the direction you want to divert the attack. If an attack is particularly deadly or fast, you want to extend your chakra as far out as possible in order to, you know, not die horribly."

Naruto's face was pale, and he knew it. It seemed like a tall task to be able to learn to use the Hiraishin in such a way, but he knew that it had to be worth it. His father managed to deflect a direct attack from a tailed beast using the technique which was surely enough of a testament to its effectiveness. It was going to be an extreme test of his chakra control in order to pull it off. His father smiled at him again, probably to try to relieve his fears.

"Don't worry about it too much; just think about it this way. It will be great to hone your reflexes even further, and that is helpful in a wide variety of ways. Also, you're gonna want to start small, probably with a blunted kunai or something. Oh, and before I forget, I've been thinking a little bit about your Senjutsu dilemma, and a thought occurred to me. If you were to challenge the Kyuubi for its chakra, then manage to successfully secure a portion of it, it may be possible to then divert the chakra that your body naturally absorbs from the seal into that reservoir, making your chakra able to support the Sage Chakra. I can't be certain, since your seal is one-of-a-kind, but that might work."

"You are really in to chakra theory, heh Dad?" He'd always heard that the Yondaime was a genius, that the man had an understanding of chakra that was far beyond most shinobi. Meeting him for the first time, he could now confirm it for himself.

"It was the love of my life. Besides your mother, of course! Chakra makes the impossible possible and I wanted to understand it better than anyone ever had. That was what I always had in the back of my mind driving me, even as I became a jounin, sensei, Hokage. So, son, what drives you? What's your dream?"

"I'm going to be the strongest Hokage!" he said, without taking even a moment to consider that he was talking directly to the man who would probably have been the strongest Hokage had he lived a longer life. Even with a shortened life, some people still made the argument. "And, I'm going to find some way to bring about peace, just like I promised Jiraiya and Nagato!"

"Hmm, bring about peace huh? A dream as old as the shinobi lifestyle. Just remember, in times of war people crave peace; in times of peace people crave war. It's a strange world you live in, Naruto. There's going to be a lot of work to get that done. But, it's your dream, so I'll believe in you just as Jiraiya-sensei once believed in me. Things sound kinda tough out there right now, but maybe somehow this situation with Iwa and Kumo will work toward your goal."

"But, how am I supposed to change things and create a permanent peace? Even after a war there's as much hatred as there was during, no matter who wins or loses."

"Why are you asking me? I never managed it. Nobody has. It's up to you to figure that out, and it definitely won't be easy."

"I'll just have to make it work."

"Is that so? Well then, I worry for Iwa and Kumo. Now, about that other dream. Consider this a bit of a challenge: if you've not surpassed me by the time you're twenty-two then it won't count. Think of it as leveling the field on my behalf, ya know, since I'm dead and all that. You mentioned Kakashi, right? He can be the judge."

"Deal! You don't stand a chance, old man!" He resolved now to train himself even harder than ever before. There was no way he could possibly fail the only challenge his father issued him.

"You're so much like your mother, it's silly. Oh, hey, that reminds me. There is actually a way you'll get to meet her, just like you met me. When I was designing your seal, low on time as I was, I imagined a day where you'd attempt to challenge it for chakra and wanted you to have a bit of help. I don't know if you know this or not, but your mother was the previous Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. Unlike your status, I assure you, hers was an absolute secret that almost no one knew of in Konoha. I'm afraid we have to wrap this up, Naruto. I can feel my chakra depleting."

Naruto's eyes went wide. Here he was, having just met his father and not really having time to goof around with him due to the events of the world, and it was almost over. There was one more thing, however, that he knew he could not leave without the answer to. "Dad, what happened on that night, when I was born?"

The young Kage sighed. "Well, you see, childbirth is naturally the most dangerous time for a female Jinchuuriki due to the seal being weakened by the development of another chakra system within the body. Meanwhile, the host's body is also weakened naturally by the process. With a seal not functioning properly and a host that is not capable of resisting fully, it is possible for the Biju to break free by flooding as much chakra as possible at the seal. I cannot be sure exactly what went wrong on that night because the Uzumaki were secretive to the point of paranoia and designed the seal to never be visible past the night it was created. If I had to guess, I would think the original seal-creator perhaps wrote one kanji slightly wrong or he just did not have enough chakra to put into the seal. Don't worry, though; with your seal you're free to have as many kids as you want!" he said, with a wink and a laugh.

"Not funny Dad."

"My bad. Look, sometimes, the worst possible thing happens and it's all we can do to adjust as best as possible without letting it get out of hand. I knew I was going to die, your mother knew it too, but we made sure that you survived. I promise you, for us, that was enough."

Naruto felt tears in his eyes as he wrapped up his father in another hug. The surreal experience would be ending soon, as much as he never wanted it to.

"I love you, son. I know you'll do great things. Say hi to your mother and Kakashi for me."

"I will. I love you too, Dad." They stayed like that for a few more seconds, a silent acknowledgment that the meeting was over, before his father's chakra finally ran out and the man disappeared in front of him. For maybe a minute or so, Naruto stood there, thinking about everything that had been said. From Hiraishin advice, to the challenge, it was clear that he had a lot of training left to do in his immediate future. It was going to be difficult to find time to properly dedicate to it, if there was a lot of fighting upcoming. War had seemed inevitable, and maybe it still was considering that he had already killed Iwa-nin. They would probably not be very happy about that.

He opened his eyes to see the very dead body of Ayashi on the floor in front of him, in a puddle of blood, where it seemed that not very much time had passed at all. Still, it had to have been some, because he could hear the sound of many footsteps coming up stairs down the hall. Someone must have heard a commotion. Making a decision, he decided to grab Daisuke's body, now definitely dead he noted, before leaving. He felt for chakra signatures from the kunai and, disappointingly, felt nothing. Surely Kakashi was on his way back to Kusa by now?

Putting more chakra to it, he continued to try to sense something. The footsteps were getting closer rapidly and he did not want to have to fight his way out. He was not willing to bet that Kusa would believe that their leader attempted to kill him; more likely, they'd try to kill on sight. Suddenly, he felt it. A faint chakra pulse, very faint, definitely far away but he was not sure exactly how far. Had Kakashi moved into range or had him attempting to use more chakra allow him to feel it from further? Yet more questions. As the door opened, he vanished. The only thing that the Kusa-nin saw was a yellow flash.

He appeared next to Kakashi, who managed to get a hand into a kunai pouch as quickly as Naruto identified that it was in-fact him. Looking around, he saw all of Team Hideo. They were eyeing him, carefully, which made sense considering that he was in fact carrying one of their dead comrades with blood on his hands. It wasn't Daisuke's blood, though; surely they recognized that.

"What happened to Daisuke?" Hideo said, worry and anger evident in his voice. Naruto lay the body on the ground, remaining adrenaline dying off and realizing that he was extremely tired currently thanks to using a, perhaps, overly-generous portion of the Kyuubi's chakra.

"We fought with Iwa-nin around the River and at Kanabi Bridge, then went to report to Ayashi. Things seemed normal, but then, his bodyguards rushed us from behind and injected both of us with some fast-acting poison. Daisuke's was near the heart and he fell unconscious practically instantly but mine was in the leg. With Daisuke down, and Ayashi presuming I'd follow shortly, he told us how the Iwa invasion was actually a ruse so that he could get his detractors killed and that Iwa would be thankful enough to support him while he was in power."

"Yeah, well, if you were poisoned, how are YOU still alive!" It seemed to have turned into mostly anger from Hideo, who seemingly doubted his recounting of events.

"Uzumaki Resilience" he answered, not feeling confident about letting the Kyuubi be known to them.

"Bullshit! You're behind this! I'm going straight to Ayashi-sama and I'll get the real version of events. You Konoha-nin better be out of the country by then!" Did Hideo really think that, if he had killed Daisuke, that he would let the man carry through with that?

"There might be a problem with that."

"Oh yeah? And what's that?" It seemed that the man was now anticipating a fight, and even his genin seemed to have taken up fighting stances.

"I killed that traitorous bastard before he could do more harm to Kusa and the rest of the world."

"You, you killed our leader! Dirty no-good backstabbing..." before he could say another word, he was suddenly dragged into the dirt with only his head remaining above ground. Kakashi popped back-up near him, a glint in his eye that would've been enough to scare any genin given the situation.

"Now now, let's all keep our heads clear here. My friend and I shall now be leaving this country while you genin dig up your sensei. If there are any objections to this plan, then I shall kill all of you without a second thought. I'd prefer not to escalate things further than they already have. Oh, and bury your friend." The genin said nothing, but one of them nodded their heads after a moment. Naruto admired their reluctance, given that their sensei had just been incapacitated easily and they were looking at two S-ranked shinobi.

After ten minutes of running with Kakashi, in which Naruto kept up with the man's fast pace despite his body wanting nothing but sleep, the other man broke the silence.

"My little Naruto, killing a village leader. They grow up so fast."

"Shut up sensei. I told you, he betrayed us first! Did you not run into any issues? Iwa-nin?"

"Nope, all was quiet for us. No Iwa-nin at all. I suspect that the incursion was planned only at Kanabi and its surroundings, and that Ayashi sent the ninja he wanted dead there. Just your luck that you should, by chance, go with the jounin that would be on his hit list." Naruto thought back, to the moment when Kakashi was picking which sensei to go with, and wondered how his luck could actually be so bad. "You know, Naruto, I suggest you start writing your report on this matter as soon as possible. I can only imagine how much of a fuss this little mission of ours is going to cause. Hey, you alright? You're slowing down."

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. I-it's just, that, I used the Kyuubi's chakra twice today. And, between that and the poison, I think I need some rest."

The man sighed before making a shadow clone. "I'm still pretty much full on chakra; hop on its back, my sleepy little student. We can't afford to rest now."

Naruto muttered a few curses under his breath but climbed onto the clone's back, resting his head on its shoulders. "Oh, sensei, before I forget, I have to tell you something." His eye-lids were heavy, even with how uncomfortable the position was combined with the high-speed running, and he let out a yawn.

"And what is that?" the man said, pulling out one of the Icha-Icha books he had undoubtedly read hundreds of times.

"Dad says hi." He said lowly, before drifting off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clear one-thing up: Iwa was not actually invading Kusa; rather, Ayashi (village leader for Kusa) arranged it to where Iwa would kill Kusa-nin that he thought would challenge him in the future. He was planning to be on Iwa's good side by having some Konoha-nin called for and killed, and that in the future he would be able to align with Iwa instead of Konoha due to believing that Konoha was no longer the right side to be on.
> 
> Also, about Naruto's birth: I mentioned in the first AN that Obito was crushed to death by that boulder (AKA, no Tobi) and that does shift a number of things slightly. It's mostly because this story's not about Akatsuki and I don't want to make it about Akatsuki. A few details will change but ultimately aside from that it's a canon world.
> 
> Thanks for reading. So sorry for taking such a huge break in trying to get the entirety of this story up on AO3; I'll be sure to make sure this story is caught up (currently at Chapter 14) in a timely manner to make up for it. I sincerely appreciate every comment, kudos, and bookmark!


	8. Kusa Arc: Conclusion

The rebuilding of Konoha seemed to have progressed minimally in his absence, although perhaps that was to be expected after being away for only about three weeks. He and Kakashi had traveled nearly full-speed in order to ensure that no news about their mission would reach Konoha before they did. It was always better to not allow rumors to spread when it comes to matters of such importance. After waking up following a full seven hours of sleep on the back of his sensei, the man had asked him about his final statement the night before. Naruto had no qualms in explaining everything that had happened to Kakashi and could remember vividly the man's response to Minato's challenge to surpass him by his twenty-second birthday.

"_Hmmm, seems like sensei finally got in over his head."_

Currently, he was about to enter the Military Headquarters alongside Kakashi with his written mission report in-hand. This was clearly a matter of extreme importance, involving Konoha's relations with one of their most important allies in addition to Iwa's relations with that ally. As he entered the tent, however, it was clear that something was different. There was more order whereas before it had been chaotic. He was looking around for whomever was in charge, expecting for Shikaku to be sulking in the back, in order to explain the happenings of his mission, when he saw a sight that he had not really been expecting.

"Baa-chan!" he said, loudly, without any hesitation. She was sitting near the back on the desk that had once been in use by Shikaku, and her head raised from the paperwork she was doing when she heard his voice. To some extent, he was surprised to not see any indication of anger from his nickname as was her usual reaction. She simply took a deep breath before she smiled, and Naruto realized that she looked as weak as he had ever seen her. Well, at least while conscious. He walked speedily to where she sat, smiling all the way, seeing her returned to her duties making him forget momentarily about the troubles and difficulties that undoubtedly lie ahead.

"Hey brat" she said, voice slightly softer than usual. "It's good to see you again. I've been worried sick."

"Oh, come on Baa-chan, you know you don't have to worry about me. You're the one who was out cold all this time!"

"Oh yes; the numerous occasions where you have almost killed yourself fill me with confidence. Besides, a little bit of rest never hurt anyone. So, how did your first mission as a jounin go?" she said, with a raised eyebrow. It felt like he was suddenly put on the spot and she seemed to be expecting for him to say something had gone horribly wrong.

"Well, the funny thing about that is..." he didn't really want to give Tsunade the news when she seemed already to be stressed and tired. Her eyes drooped down as her suspicions were proven correct, and Naruto cursed his luck that his first mission as a Jounin would be such a disaster.

"Oh kid, you age me ten years every time I see you. How bad is it?"

"Naruto killed the village leader of Kusagakure" his sensei said, causing Naruto to fill with an intense desire to be anywhere else than where he was. Besides Kusa, of course.

"Can't say I was expecting that" Tsunade said with a sigh, seeming more nonchalant than angry much to his surprise. "I'm going to assume that there was a good reason?"

"Ummm…. Yeah." He thought he'd get yelled at then have to explain himself out of the situation. "He had two of his bodyguards ambush me and a Kusa-nin, poison us, then admitted that he was working with Iwa to have some of his detractors killed and that he thought Konoha was the wrong side to be on. Wanted Kusa to be a Top Five Shinobi Village and to become a Kage."

"Hand me your mission report" she said, a defeated look in her eyes. Naruto hesitated for a moment before complying with her.

"Are you okay, Baa-chan?"

"I'm fine; just a bit tired from all this make-up work I have to do. Not really fully-recovered yet from my nap either."

Tsunade barely knew how to respond. From the first moment she woke up, about five days ago, her days had been filled with nothing but briefings, council meetings, and mission assignments as well as trying to arrange a diplomatic solution to the rising tensions. Her village, such a strange thought to her to think of it as such, needed to be prepared for war but right now it was little more than several tons of scaffolding in a crater surrounded by slums of tents. Many clan shinobi were too busy trying to rebuild their compounds to be on active mission duty and she had to constantly weigh her need for another clan member on a team with the possible political problems that could arise if any of the clans thought that she was slowing them down. In addition to all that, she had to reassure the citizens to have faith in the village's ability to protect them.

"Actually, you know what, let's take a bit of a walk. Kakashi, dismissed. I am sure you'll have a new mission shortly." She walked up, putting on her Hokage Robes and Hat which he was not actually accustomed to seeing her wear. He knew, however, that she was most likely just trying to promote a sense of pride and to make a statement that the Hokage was no longer inactive to all shinobi and citizens. One day, when he became Hokage, he was going to wear them all the time just as Jiji did; no way he was going to work that hard to get the robes and not have them on. They left the tent, side-by-side, and she took a breath of fresh air.

"I really needed an excuse for a short break; thanks for that, kid. There's something I need to talk to you about; consider it political training, alright?"

"Sure thing Baa-chan. What's on your mind?" He finally succeeded in getting an angry eyebrow from the woman for his nickname and smiled, though she seemed to do nothing else in response.

"Look, I need to be honest with you Naruto." She used his name; that was probably not good. "In the last war, there was not a single village participating that did not suffer greatly. At that time, Konoha stood up and fought against Kumo, Iwa, and to some extent Kiri. We were able to hold our own, but it was at incredible costs. Not only did some clans lose over half of their members, the village's alliances were weakened after the prior loss of Uzushiogakure. We were stretched thin on every front, relying on sheer shinobi willpower to survive but that can only go so far. If it were not for your father, I have no doubts that we would not have been able to stop Iwa. You know, I can still remember it. The constant death, the never-ending missions, coming home after a mission accomplished only to learn that it had not gone so well for your friends or your friends' friend. Instead of mourning, you prepared for the next fight anyway. The only reason that peace was achieved was from pure exhaustion, with every village having been pushed to their limits. Since then, however, Iwa and Kumo have had the ability to rebuild themselves mostly uninterrupted. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we're in the worst situation we've ever faced."

"I think I get what you mean. Iwa and Kumo have been relatively quiet since the war whereas we've had to deal with the Kyuubi Attack, Uchiha Massacre, Suna/Oto Invasion, and Pein attack. Suna's had to deal with the aftermath of that invasion too, which I'd guess was pretty bad for them since Orochimaru probably made sure that they over-committed to it. Does that sound about right?"

"Yep. And, from the sounds of it, I would guess that we're about to lose Kusa as an ally too. There's an important lesson for you in this, kid, one that you need to learn; I know you think that things will be different, but for now, you should assume every alliance to be one of convenience. From first reports on Hoshigakure, Kumo is using every excuse in the book to avoid an official declaration of war. Disputing borders, claiming Hoshi-nin commenced the attacks, claiming Hoshi-nin have been interrupting trade routes. And they have conveniently faked evidence for all of it. On the bright side, Ayashi probably did not have many people informed about his plans and their new leader will likely not side with Iwa either. Additionally, while I'm not sure which side they'd take, Kiri is still fresh out of a brutal civil war so are hopefully a non-factor. We're still trying to figure out where the rest of the minor villages stand."

He did not like the sound of things. Tsunade talked as if war was right around the corner and it looked like Konoha couldn't be in a worse position. The way that things were shaping up, it seemed like it could be Konoha, Suna, Ame, and Taki fighting against Kumo and Iwa and any of their possible allies. At this point it felt like unrealistic optimism to expect anything other than fighting in the future, and it looked like it'd be an uphill battle at that.

"I'll do anything I can to make sure the village gets through this. And I know so many other people will too. That's the power of the Will of Fire, right? The way we band together in times of hardship, to do things like rebuild and defend our home?"

She smiled, her burdened spirit lifted slightly from his words."Hmm, you know, I'm half-tempted to just pass the Hat on to you now." The smile faded and a renewed look of seriousness defined her features. "From what I hear, Danzo feels the same way."

"Oh, you heard about that huh? I'm not sure what happened; that was the first time I ever met him." He was feeling a little embarrassed, having to talk with Tsunade about an attempt to replace her with him, even if he had not been the one trying. There was just something so very awkward about it.

"Look, Naruto," she said, being serious and looking him in the eye, "I would not put much trust in Danzo. For as long as I've been in office, he has done nothing but deride my decision-making and attempt to use whatever back-channels he could think of to undermine my authority. From what I've heard it was the same with Hiruzen. He and the other advisers do certainly offer quite a bit of knowledge and experience, and they are helpful, but they're set in their ways about what a Hokage should be. Before Hiruzen died, the three of them were in disagreement often from what I heard; since, though, it seems they act together and none of them like me." He decided it would be better not to mention that the man had already voiced his extreme displeasure of her to him. "If he's throwing his support behind you, I can only imagine that he has some reason that benefits himself."

"Right; I'll make sure not to let my guard down around him." He thought back to the way that Danzo had talked in their discussion, to the way the man talked of the Kage with an obvious passion. Maybe it was a bit naive, but he wanted to believe that Danzo truly did want what was best for the village. Still, after the Ayashi incident, he would ensure that he kept his guard up and would not let himself get so caught by surprise again.

"That's all I ask. I know this message will be lost on you, but, be careful brat."

"I'll try." He did not really think that being too careful was a possibility in his future but it didn't hurt to ease the old woman's worries. Caution was never really his style. She did nothing but nod. "By the way, I've been thinking about my training. You know pretty much every ninja in the village; do you know anyone who could help my elemental training?" He knew that there had to be a reason the Rasenshuriken injured him and was not perfectly complete but asking anyone like Kakashi about it was pointless. Kakashi, though he knew wind jutsu, was far from an expert on that particular element. He also did not want Tsunade to know he'd be working on it since she seemed to believe it was an issue without a solution.

"Wind-users are exceedingly rare here in Konoha, as I'm sure you know. Before Asuma died, he was counted as one of them. Off the top of my head, I can think of only one man with skill enough in the fuuton element to train you to a skill-level appropriate of a Kage-level shinobi. And here I thought we had just finished talking about him." she said with a slight chuckle.

"Does that mean..."

"Yes; Danzo Shimura is probably the most capable fuuton user in the village. And, though I loathe to admit it, he was once quite the skilled shinobi; of course, what else should be expected from a student of the Nidaime? I have no doubt that he will take a special pleasure in training you, and he will probably try to convert you more closely to his way of thinking. I do not trust him, have not ever trusted him, will never trust him, but if you are trying to learn your element then he's the best available."

The mysteries of Danzo continued to increase. The man who was an adviser to both the Third and Fifth Hokage, probably even the Fourth, and who had invited him to a council meeting despite the two of them having never met, was according to Tsunade his best possible trainer. A man who seemed to despise Tsunade and whom the woman had just finished warning him about. He also would not forget that the man's actions at the council meeting had managed to catch seemingly everyone off-guard, including himself. The man was a veteran politician, veteran shinobi, and from what Danzo himself had told him, a self-proclaimed Kage specialist. Maybe, though, he could use the elemental training as a way of unraveling the story behind the figure.

"I have been thinking about something ever since I was briefed on the escalating situation, and I've made up my mind" she said suddenly, causing him to look over at her with a questioning look. "I'm going to call for a Kage Summit between all the Kage."

"Has that ever been done before?"

"Yes; once, during the Shodaime's term. It was when they distributed the tailed beasts actually. I assure you that what we have documented of that meeting indicates that it did not go all that smoothly. Normally the hard part would be trying to get all the Kage to attend but we're at an advantage this time. Obviously we've got two villages guaranteed in Konoha and Suna, and I strongly believe that the Raikage and Tsuchikage will agree under the pretenses of seeking a diplomatic solution. The Mizukage will probably be intrigued enough to agree as well. All I need is a willing host."

"You think it will actually accomplish anything?"

"It is unlikely; in fact, it will probably be the very last step before an official declaration of war. All the reports I'm getting make it seem fairly obvious that they are committed and I'm sure, based off of what you told me of Kusagakure, that I will be even more convinced shortly. Still, it's our best shot and will at least let us see how the Mizukage is reacting to this fiasco. Additionally, I'll be taking an added risk that, well, to be honest might be a bit silly but I think it will prove worthwhile."

"And what's that?" he asked, confused by the sudden smirk on her face.

"You'll be one of my bodyguards."

"Huh?" That confused him; if a large part of the reason that Iwa and Kumo were acting this way was due to his learning the Hiraishin and likely assuming he was the son of the Yondaime, as Danzo and Shikaku seemed to suppose, then it seemed like a bad idea for him to be in the same room as them.

"The Raikage and Tsuchikage are very different people, Naruto. The Raikage is an aggressive man yet surprisingly cunning and well-known for his incredible strength. The Tsuchikage, however, is an elderly man whom his entire life has preferred to sit on the side and carefully choose before he involves his village and these actions from Iwa are entirely uncharacteristic of his decision making. Undoubtedly he is convinced that it would be very dangerous to allow someone who can use the Hiraishin to develop and is acting out because of that, afraid that soon Konoha will have another Minato. After all, as the leader of Iwa I have no doubt he must have hated your father. I need to see their reactions to your presence so I can gauge their likely attitudes should it come to war. It is possible that it may just escalate things but it is hard to believe at this point that it would not happen anyway. We must be willing to take risks. In a war of shinobi any and all information can prove useful. There is also the fact that bringing along a shinobi officially listed in Iwa's Bingo Book to the Summit will send a strong message to the minor villages that we are not afraid and should help to ensure our allies are cooperative. Anyway, we do not know if it will happen yet but consider yourself off mission duty until I know for sure."

They did not say another word, standing side-by-side looking at numerous civilians and shinobi continued working to bring the village back to its former glory for a few moments before she dismissed him with a rub of the head. He stood there for a while longer, thinking over the events of the day and of the training he would need to ensure he committed himself to shortly. In the coming days he understood that there would be a lot to do and that a lot of people would be relying on him, and he determined to do everything within his power to make sure he would not let them down Still pondering the events of the day and of the future, he began walking around the city, looking to see its level of rebuilding.

"Boss, you're back!" his wanderings were interrupted shortly later by the energetic voice of his only student, Konohamaru. Naruto smiled at this; it really had been a bit too long since he had any interaction with the genin.

"Yeah, went out on my first mission as a Jounin!" he said with a grin, causing Konohamaru to become starry-eyed.

"You got promoted? Ha, well, maybe you've got a head start on me but I won't be a genin for long ya know. I'm definitely becoming a chuunin, sooner rather than later!"

"Hmmm, you think so?" It was always fun goading the kid onward.

"Oh yeah, I know it! I took out one of the Peins myself! How many of these regular chuunin could do that?" Naruto gave it a thought; while he was sure there was some element of surprise involved, and Nagato was not really very careful with the Paths since he assumed they would be able to always be restored, it was quite an impressive feat and chances were that most of the chuunin may have struggled since they were unlikely to have a jutsu like the Rasengan to use.

"Hmmm… well, there's Sakura, Kiba, and Lee; I'm sure any of them could have."

"Yeah? Well, why didn't they then! Besides, you know they're way above an average chuunin."

"I know I know. I would bet not many chuunin could have done what you did."

"Plus, there's been talk that there is going to be a lot of fighting soon. I'm going to do my best to make sure I get noticed so I can get a field promotion instead of doing those stupid exams. Like you, huh Boss?" It seemed that word of rising tensions, to put it lightly, with Kumo and Iwa had probably been leaked to the general populace by someone now. With a village being rebuilt and the Hokage having been absent that was probably not a very good thing. Despite the attack, there was a certain liveliness in the village as people began rebuilding their homes and it would be a bad thing to have it interrupted.

"Don't sound so eager, Konohamaru. There could be tough times ahead for all of us, ya know. Where there is fighting there will be death and I need you to be there to replace me after all." He tried to sound nonchalant about it but, in reality, he did worry quite a bit about the young genin. Konohamaru was always so enthusiastic that you could count on him to want to charge headfirst into a fight no matter how lopsided it was against him. Very much like himself, now that he thought about it. He shouldn't really judge Konohamaru since neither of them liked playing the odds.

"I know it's dangerous but, well, you didn't get to see yourself fight against Pein, Boss." Konohamaru said, his voice sounding suddenly a bit more solemn as he became lost in a memory. "I'd never seen you like that before; it was awesome! You were moving faster than anyone I've ever seen, appearing and disappearing before I could even tell where you were. You were hitting them with everything you had, your punches felt like they were echoing through the rubble and everytime you managed to connect another Rasengan the people around me started to feel hope again. Hope that it was not the end. I couldn't even say anything when you fought the final Pein and used the shadow clones and the Hiraishin to hit him faster than he could push back. You were so focused, Boss, like the rest of us were not even there. People are still talking about it all the time; they say that it'll be in the history books. "

"I understand what you mean, Konohamaru. Nothing pushes a shinobi further than a good fight, and my fight with Pein was definitely one of the toughest I've ever had. When I was fighting Pein, I only had one thing on my mind: victory. I knew that I had to defeat him for everyone who had been lost. You want a real fight, something to push yourself to the limit like I've had to." He smiled and put his hand in Konohamaru's hair, ruffling it much to the genin's chagrin. "I know how you feel; believe me, I do. And I know you want a really tough opponent, not just some bandit or some guard duty against enemy genin. You just need to prepare yourself for them so you're ready when they do arrive; do not go looking for them. Got it kid?" Maybe he was being a bit unfair in criticizing Konohamaru for wanting a fight; after all, it would be an absolute lie to say that there was not a part of him that did wonder about the combat ahead, but he could hardly imagine coming home from some mission and finding out that something had happened to the kid.

"Yeah yeah, come on, you're reading into it too much Boss! I'm just saying that I'm ready to become a Chuunin and I don't want to take those stupid exams!" He probably was thinking about it too much; it seemed lately that he was thinking about everything a lot more than ever had before. It was hard not to feel a little bit burdened by the fact that the Elemental Nations were on the brink of war so shortly after he had promised Nagato he would find peace. It seemed his world was changing very rapidly, from outcast to Hero and from barely knowing the location of most shinobi villages to being more involved in politics to the point of going along with Tsunade to a possible Kage Summit.

"Hmmm… yeah, guess you're right. Maybe how fast everything is moving is starting to get to me. Hah, whatever. Anyway, you look like you have some free time. Need any help with your training?"

"Yeah! You gonna teach me Hiraishin?" the genin said with a smile that Naruto could not distinguish between being either hopeful or mischievous.

"Hah, in your dreams maybe!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naruto returns to Konoha and finds Tsunade back in action; Tsunade informs Naruto of more of the situation, as well as warning him about Danzo. The possibility of a Kage Summit looms on the horizon as the final obstacle to the outbreak of another Great Shinobi War.
> 
> Thanks for reading; I sincerely appreciate every comment, kudos, and bookmark!


	9. Training with Danzo

"I must admit, Uzumaki-san, I am greatly surprised you would seek me for your training. May I ask why you should specifically ask for me?"

"Tsunade baa-chan said you were the best wind user for teaching me. You can call me Naruto, by the way."

"Ah yes, my apologies. When you've been in my position for so long it becomes almost impossible to drop the formalities Uzumaki-san." Naruto had Tsunade arrange to have Danzo deliver a message asking for the man to assist in his training at the training ground early in the morning today and the man had almost immediately returned with a reply in the positive. The mysterious nature of the elderly adviser was something that discomforted Naruto slightly, regardless of how he had been treated thus far; after all, here was someone he had never heard of who was an adviser to several Kage all while being the most accomplished wind user in the village according to Tsunade. "I must admit, I am somewhat surprised she would recommend you to me. I do not believe it a secret that she despises me."

"Well, she knows that you never supported her getting the position and are not a fan of her but I suppose she still recognizes your abilities."

"Fair enough; I would be willing to admit that, though she may not be fit for the position of Hokage, she would be valuable as the head of medic-nin and training ninja who may not be suited for other positions. Anyway, forgive me if I strayed away from the point. I am sure you are very busy these days, especially with the Kage Summit coming up in the Land of Iron shortly." It was official now, and not really a tightly kept secret, that there would be the second Kage Summit in history in a matter of weeks in an effort to lower tensions. It seemed now that all of Konoha was preparing itself for war, even as it rebuilt itself. Priority was now given to any areas that would offer a military advantage, with economic motives taking second place especially as the market district was mostly rebuilt. Residential life was in shambles, however, and it seemed like it would stay that way for quite a while longer.

"I guess but I'm not really going to be doing anything; just standing beside her as a guard." Tsunade had been very clear that he was expected to behave as a guard and only as a guard, not interjecting no matter what was said. His input was going to be his appearance and nothing more. For some reason, that was not enough to ease his nerves about what the Tsuchikage and Raikage would say about him at the meeting.

"That is understandable; after all, a Kage Summit should truly be between the Kage. However, I do believe her taking you is a strong sign for the village that we will not back down. A very sensible decision, surprising for her I would say. I would not be shocked if she were taking you for some additional, alternative reason that only she knows. Anyway, allow me to delay no longer. Please describe your issue with fuuton."

"Right. I started learning how to use my wind element not too long ago, before my fight with Kakazu. I really only had one goal in learning it: adding wind chakra to my Rasengan. At first I thought I succeeded but whenever I use the jutsu it hurts my hand and arm. Tsunade told me not to worry about attempting the jutsu any longer because it could cause permanent damage to my ability to mold chakra. However, I know that there has to be a reason that it is not working. Something that Tsunade and Kakashi missed."

"Ah, so, I would guess then that Tsunade would not know the exact reason you sought my aid?" The man developed a very slight smirk on his face that vanished almost as quickly as it developed. Naruto guessed that the man was somewhat happy to know that there was some dissension between him and the Hokage that the elder did not support.

"She does not know it's about the Rasenshuriken" he said, somewhat embarrassed that he was keeping it a secret from her but he knew she would worry about it too much if she knew. He would tell her after he had perfected it, assuming that it was possible. He also suspected that maybe, just maybe, Tsunade did know he was working on it but based on her prior diagnosis he would have expected her to protest more.

"Very well; now then, perform the jutsu as much as you are willing."

A small part of him was feeling kind of nervous about performing the jutsu due to Tsunade's warning; sure, it was easy to use it when it felt like a necessity to get something done like destroying the Kanabi Bridge but this was different. Naruto created a shadow clone who stood beside him as Danzo kept a watchful eye over both of them. With no further hesitation he created a Rasengan in his right hand which his clone began adding wind chakra to as he worked to keep it stable. The power began to build quickly as a roaring sound filled the air. A familiar burning sensation began to stir in his hand causing him to wince ever so slightly.

"I believe I have seen enough" the man said, causing Naruto to allow the jutsu to dissipate and for his clone to dispel. "You see, there is actually a very simple explanation as to why performing this jutsu would currently be harmful for you. I must admit, I am surprised that neither Kakashi nor Tsunade realized it. Perhaps the unusual nature of shadow clones or their unfamiliarity with wind chakra misguided them. Tell me, what would happen if one of your clones were to use a jutsu against you or if you were to substitute in front of one of your own jutsu? Would you be physically harmed by the attack?"

He had never really thought about it before but supposed that there was no particular reason the answer should be no. "Yeah, I guess so?"

"Correct; you see, once chakra has left the body, it is unfair really to label it as that person's chakra. It knows no loyalty and can harm anyone, be it the jutsu user or their opponent. It is easy to understand the theory behind what you are attempting: your real body creates the Rasengan and maintains stability as the shadow clone adds wind chakra to the jutsu. By doing this, you are dividing the responsibilities between two selves and making the jutsu much easier to perform. This is misguided due to overlooking the ability of your own chakra to harm yourself. When the clone adds wind chakra, most of it is undoubtedly going into the jutsu however there is a residual amount draining into the opened tenketsu of your hand. This is what is causing you to feel pain from its use. Of course, there is a chance that this interpretation is incorrect but I believe it perfectly fits the uniqueness of the situation as well as the pain you are feeling."

"That makes a lot of sense" Naruto said, usually not delving too much into chakra theory but understanding the way Danzo described it and believing it to be a plausible description. "Do you think there's a way to fix it?"

"It should be simple enough. The issue arises from the fact that you are attempting to use a shadow clone to add chakra into the jutsu. Therefore, you need to eliminate the clone from the process. I would guess that you need to use the shadow clone due to not being proficient enough in wind jutsu at this stage. Tell me the extent of your wind training."

"Umm… Kakashi had me split a leaf and then had me work to keep a waterfall split. Then I worked on the jutsu."

"Interesting; that does build your ability to utilize wind chakra. I wager that you should simply become more accustomed to using wind chakra in jutsu in order to develop a more natural feeling for your affinity. It is a bit overambitious to make your first jutsu in learning your affinity an S-ranked one that even your father had not managed to perfect in his life time. Your training has taught you some measure of control and exertion though has not prepared you properly for routine usage. If you would allow I will teach you a basic wind jutsu that should prove quite useful."

"Really? That'd be awesome!" he said, his eagerness at possibly learning a new ability outweighing whatever caution he had held thus far in his interaction with Danzo. Having it help him learn the Rasenshuriken in some way was definitely a very nice bonus.

"Very well. I shall show you all the hand signs this once though I am capable of performing it with merely one." The man's one hand slowly went through the signs which Naruto could recognize as being Tiger, Ox, Dog, Rabbit, Snake. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough" he said calmly, moving his one hand ever so slightly and sending an extremely powerful gust of wind toward the nearby trees, leaving deep cuts in their trunks and causing a few to bend in the direction of the attack. "This is a very simplistic wind jutsu, but it is capable of dealing quite the blow when infused with enough wind chakra that is sufficiently controlled. I am not sure if this shall be enough to correct your problem of using wind chakra but it certainly will help."

"Right!" Naruto said, with a nod of his head and a renewed feeling of determination now that he had a very clear goal directly in front of him and a desire to master the new challenge put forth. He created fifty shadow clones who were prepared to begin attempting to learn the jutsu as quickly as possible. "Thanks a lot Danzo-sama" he said, thankful to the man for his help thus far.

"No problem; you would not mind too much if I watched the training for a while? I am quite curious about this training method." That was interesting; could there be any harm to it? Essentially, he was agreeing to allow Danzo to spy on him but it's not like the man could learn anything useful from it. After all, the shadow clone training method was exactly as described: using shadow clones to train. There were no additional hidden nuances that would be learned from observation. So, there was no real harm in assenting.

"Sure; gotta warn you that it might be pretty boring" he said, rubbing his neck as he witnessed all his clones around him being unable to create more than a slight gust of harmless wind. Definitely a big let down to go from Danzo bending trees to barely being able to create a gale, but oh well, such was the process of learning a new jutsu. Out of nowhere, he saw a man of some sort appear next to Danzo and hand the man what appeared to be tea; the man then disappeared and Danzo sat cross-legged on the ground, sipping the supposed tea. Trying to not let that distract him, he joined his clones in learning the new jutsu, determined to get it mastered within a day.

Three hours, and several hundred shadow clones later, he lay on the ground panting and covered in sweat. Truly, the jutsu had been rather easy to get a basic handle of but was somewhat difficult to control its power instead of letting it spread in too wide an area to be useful. Still, the more he practiced the wind jutsu, the more he was able to do damage. The progression was easy enough to see: from a small gale, to an obvious burst of wind, to scratching the tree line, to controlling to an extent the width of the attack and thus its concentration, and finally, to leave deep cuts in the trees. The more chakra he put into the jutsu, the more damage it seemed to do; however, at some point, it became clear that putting more chakra was having reduced benefits and became wasteful. There was still room to improve; first, he would focus on being able to use it with merely one hand-sign, then he would focus on finding the best way to be able to bend the trees back as Danzo had done.

"I've seen my best shinobi, the true elites, take approximately five days to reach the point in mastery that you are at in three hours. Your training method is extraordinary, Uzumaki-san."

"Hah, yeah, thanks" he said, sitting up and catching his breath. "It sure takes a lot out of ya though; think I'll take an hour break for lunch and then get back to it." Maybe it was not as intensive as his Rasenshuriken training had been but it was exhausting in its own right. Thankfully, this one felt a bit more rewarding due to the ability to really feel and see the progress quickly; with as many clones as he had practiced with, there was a decent chance at least that he had killed a few trees in that nearby treeline. Although, now that he thought about it, the best thing to do would probably to have clones work on the Great Breakthrough after lunch while he personally used the Hiraishin a bit and tried to get a bit of the nuances down such as lowering the chakra usage and being able to control his location within a few feet at the destination.

"If you don't mind my asking, what drives you to train so hard? If you believe that the Nations should be at peace then what use is your strength in such a world?" He had the idea that Danzo was genuinely curious but that the question was intended to make himself think of an answer as opposed to making the adviser convinced of anything. That was fine by him; ever since the fight with Pein and that sudden nomination at the council meeting he had been thinking a lot more about the reality behind being Hokage, why he wanted it, and what he would do with it.

"I guess it's kinda simple to me. I need to be as strong as possible in order to protect as many people as I can. I know that the path to peace is not easy, and maybe I don't know what obstacles will be on that path, but I need to be as prepared as I can be. The goal is not only to be at peace but to build a lasting peace, just like Jiraiya hoped."

"But how can there be a true peace when there is so much worth fighting for? Glory, honor, money, family, village, friends, loyalty? Are not all these things something which could drive a war?"

"Peace has to be seen as the most beneficial option; it needs to be ensured that, in any case, preserving peace is better than the alternative." Sure, he was not exactly sure of how that was going to be done yet, but having a basis for it in his mind was much more than he used to have. "Obviously there will still be obstacles but so long as the benefits outweigh everything else then the majority will favor peace." Now he decided to switch it up and ask Danzo a question instead. "You mentioned earlier that you saw your best shinobi take longer to learn the jutsu. Were you a sensei or trainer?"

"Uzumaki-san, please, there is no need to be so indirect with me." Of course, trying to play politics with an experienced adviser was perhaps a step or two out of his reach. Danzo seemed to have read through the question as if he had not even tried to disguise it and he had the distinct feeling that the man knew very well what he was trying to ask. It felt like they were playing a game with each other, wherein Danzo tried to get information from him and he tried to get information from Danzo, but right now he felt a little outmatched.

"If you love the village so much, why would you train shinobi and have them operate illegally? Don't you think that's dangerous?"

"Why? Because some missions are too risky for the Hokage to send valued ANBU on or it'd be too catastrophic if the shinobi was caught and revealed to be working for Konoha. My Root would take these missions instead and, should anything have gone wrong, Konoha would not be connected. Dangerous? How so? My shinobi were trained from a young age to know one thing: loyalty to me. So long as they were loyal to me, they were loyal to the village and, if they were not loyal, they were eliminated." The man's voice remained perfectly calm, as it almost always seemed to be.

"Don't you think some of the missions are too dangerous for all the time it takes you to train them? Orochimaru could have easily killed Sai when you sent him to make your offer."

"Perhaps; however, it was our only chance at getting to Orochimaru. I believed we needed to make a move as the time-table Jiraiya provided for when Orochimaru could transfer bodies was reaching its end." In theory Danzo had essentially confessed to treason by practically admitting his program was still in place but Naruto had to admit that there was some truthfulness to what Danzo was saying; after all, if the snake had somehow managed to acquire Sasuke's body, which everyone else seemed to believe would happen though he knew the Uchiha would find some way out of it, then it would have been supremely dangerous. Much more dangerous than Sasuke being a stuck-up idiot.

"I still do not think it was worth the risk." He said, knowing a bit more about Sai now and thinking of him as a teammate made it impossible to agree with sending him into such an overwhelmingly dangerous situation with very low chances of success. What, exactly, were the odds that Orochimaru would believe Danzo then agree to a meeting where he could be ambushed or whatever it was Danzo planned?

"You are aware that, as Hokage, you will send people to their deaths on a regular basis? Even in times of peace there are bandits, missions, missing-nin, and many other things that we cannot predict."

"Of course; obviously it's not an easy burden to bear but I prefer to be the one doing it so nobody else has to. And, if I'm the one wearing that hat, then I can be assured that every shinobi that dies on these missions was as prepared as they could have been, that proper precaution was taken, that the right shinobi was assigned to the job, all that stuff. I'll have the responsibility and I'll take it seriously." Death was a hazard of the shinobi lifestyle; if it wasn't that serious then they would not have mentioned it going as far back as the academy. For as long as someone knows of shinobi's existence they will know of the dangers of their career. All that said, when he was Hokage, he was going to do his best to minimize as many needless deaths on missions as possible.

"Tell me, Uzumaki-san, are you acquainted with the Hyuuga Affair?" Danzo was rather talented at bouncing from one topic of conversation to another that did not necessarily seem related but that Naruto knew was in some way.

"Yeah, Neji told me about it. His father was killed and sent to Kumo because they were mad that Hiashi killed their diplomat when he tried to kidnap Hinata." He could still think back to the hateful way that Neji had first described it, all those years ago, and to their brutal fight in the Chuunin Exam that he was barely able to pull a victory in. The Hyuuga had changed so much since that fight that sometimes it was hard to believe it was the same person.

"Correct; now, I want you to tell me: would you have sacrificed Hizashi?"

"No way! They tried to kidnap a clan heir then called for the death of a clan head. I would never have let us sacrifice Hizashi or Hiashi."

"Are you sure? We still had not recovered from the effects of the last war, people wanted peace, we had a chance to secure it at least with Kumo. Our shinobi were exhausted and had suffered many casualties over the preceding years; to not sacrifice Hizashi could have been the beginning of the next large war. There was no evidence truly that the Kumo-nin had attempted to kidnap Hinata aside from the testimony of the Hyuuga Clan; at least, that's how the other villages would have seen it."

He thought about it a bit more. On the one hand, it was obviously wrong to have sacrificed one of their own shinobi after a foreign-nin had done something so terrible as to try to kidnap one of the village's children; on the other, it had been able to keep them at peace for all this time. "Yes, I am sure. Kumo was undoubtedly tired of war as well whether or not the Raikage was willing to acknowledge it. I think they took a risk, got caught, then bluffed their way out of it."

"Hmph, so you would presume to say that the Sandaime Hokage and his advisers made the wrong decision on the matter even though you were not there to see for yourself the state of the village? Ravaged by the Kyuubi, lost without its hero the Yondaime?" The man seemed to be the slightest bit annoyed at this point but Naruto had made up his mind. Perhaps, in a way, it could be justified as one man being willing to sacrifice himself to save the lives of others within the village but something about that did not sit right with him. There was just something wrong about a shinobi who had trained his entire life for combat and had started a family to die in his own village to appease another, whether or not the man had been accepting of it.

"I can't support allowing a shinobi of this village with a family to sacrifice himself because another village asked. Whatever would have come of it is acceptable, I would have taken responsibility because that's what a Hokage should do. Make the right decisions, not the easy decisions, and bear the burden of their aftermath knowing that he did the right thing."

"I wonder what Hiruzen would have said, hearing you say such a thing."

"He would have understood, I think; maybe, somehow, he could have convinced me otherwise but I don't think so." Really, it did not seem like something Jiji would have even considered but he supposed that it was soon after the Kyuubi attack and maybe that had more to do with it than he would have thought.

"You do continue to impress me, Uzumaki-san" the adviser said with a slight expression on his face that he could somewhat interpret as what would be a smile for Danzo. Needless to say he was surprised by the man's reaction; he had been under the impression that he was taking a position opposite to the adviser's and that he had genuinely annoyed the man with his stance. "Your eagerness to hold on to your morals is interesting; normally, I would even consider it naive, and yet, there is a certain practicality in your understanding of the position of Hokage that makes it not be such. I do think I am beginning to understand why my Root program never turned up a viable candidate."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Naruto had imagined that Danzo wanted his Root shinobi to be the perfect subordinates and to support the Shimura to the position of Hokage, not that Danzo could have ever intended them to possibly have the position.

"Ah, forgive my wandering mind. I must have misspoken in my old age." Naruto did not believe that for a second though he got the strong impression that Danzo did not actually expect him to. "I must be returning to my duties now Uzumaki-san; perhaps it would be agreeable to hold another training session at the same time in a week? I expect by then you will have already grown bored of the fuuton jutsu you learned today."

"Yeah, that sounds good. Thanks for the help." The man nodded, before turning around and walking away.

It had been a productive training session, though not entirely for its original purpose of helping him to correct the Rasenshuriken, which was not to say that Naruto was not grateful for the man giving him a new hope that he could master it someday. Yes, he was definitely thankful for a new jutsu and for having an idea about what he had been doing wrong but there was far more to the training than that. He had learned a fair bit more about Danzo and his thought processes though it felt like nothing more than the adviser wanted him to know. Additionally, it made him think more about the position of Hokage and the kinds of things he would do once he got that hat. It definitely seemed like any future training sessions with the Shimura were going to be very interesting and probably involve a bit more than elemental training.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are, another chapter focusing on Naruto and Danzo! Now, if you're curious as to why my Danzo is "so different from canon", here's the reason: Basically, for some reason, in the Anime, Danzo is pretty much depicted as being straight evil and the cause of so many of Konoha's problems that I personally do not think make sense to blame on him. I'm not trying to make him an all-around great guy or anything, but I want him to be a character as opposed to just "Super evil, responsible for everything wrong with the world person'. That said, if you think that this version of him is extremely different, keep in mind that he is only showing the part of himself that he would want Naruto to see. There'll be plenty more about him in the future, rest assured.
> 
> Thanks for reading; I sincerely appreciate every comment, kudos, and bookmark!


	10. Five Kage Summit: Part 1

The Land of Iron was not the most pleasant place Naruto had ever seen, that much could be assured. It was highly mountainous and even in this time of year, when it should be mid-Spring, there was a rather large amount of snow and ice blanketing the ground. He understood now why Tsunade made sure to leave with plenty of time to arrive at the meeting place; not only was it rough terrain but she was insistent that running when in view of others could be seen as panic so walked as casually as possible whenever appropriate. That was definitely not something he would have thought about.

Their quarters for staying were rather big, surprising considering they were with each village having their own section of rooms far away from any others so as to prevent any conflict. The meeting room that they were now in seemed to be located approximately in the middle, if he had to guess based off of where they were staying. They were given three rooms, though Tsunade suggested that he and the Anbu share one for safety reasons. Truth be told, he minded a little bit sharing a room with someone he barely knew and had hardly interacted with at all on the journey there, but Tsunade was in the type of mood that told him not to bother arguing it. Besides, she said that Swan was one of her most reliable agents and the guy had been perfectly accepting of letting him have the bed so that made him decent enough.

Standing at Tsunade's side in the meeting room, it would have been an understatement to say that he did not feel welcome. A short old-man sat in one seat, the hat of the Tsuchikage in front of him, and he had a look that refused to hide even a tiny bit of disdain for him. The guy's eyes had not even left him for the minute or two they had been in the room, and to try to entertain himself, Naruto set about deciding whether the look was a scowl or a leer. Beside the man, on his left, was the girl his clone had fought briefly at Kanabi Bridge back on the Iwa-Kusa border. She was looking at him with a look in her eyes that clearly conveyed she wanted both to fight and kill him, probably upset that she had allowed a shadow clone to delay her so long due to playing it safe. Meanwhile, the Raikage was very clearly sizing him up and seemed to be about one-step away from challenging him to some kind of duel. The Mizukage was also looking at him, though not at all like the other two; she was looking at him in a way that he could not determine any particular meaning from. Old man Tsuchikage looked like he wanted him to die, the extremely muscular Raikage looked like he wanted a fight, and he could not quite discern the Mizukage's look though he felt as if he was being thoroughly examined.

At least Gaara had just given him a head nod as a hello; that had been nice. Briefly, the thought crossed his mind that the Tsuchikage and Raikage were almost too willing to make their intentions understandable to the room. Wouldn't it have been better if they had hidden their expressions? They were the leaders of two of the most powerful shinobi villages; there was no way they weren't more capable of maintaining a neutral appearance. Another interesting thing he noticed was that the Mizukage only had one guard, a stern looking man with bandages covering his eye. Everyone else had two.

The door to the room opened and, as the samurai's leader Mifune walked in, everyone in the room had gone to looking straight forward with no interest visible in their eyes, as if they did not have a single care in the world and had been sitting as such for hours. While in some respect it was a great honor to have the eyes of nearly all the Kage on him, he had to admit that it felt rather nice when they were finally taken off. There was something about having to just stand there and endure it, rather than being able to talk it off, that made him much more uncomfortable.

"I apologize for the delay; there were security matters that needed my attending. Allow me to preface the beginning of this meeting by saying that having everyone here is, in and of itself, a major accomplishment. I am honored that my small home should be the meeting place of the Five Kage. I assure all of you that my purpose here is only as a neutral, third-party observer. I wish merely to facilitate discussion, rather than make it myself. Is this clear and agreed upon by all?" All the Kage nodded their heads. "Very well; seeing as Hokage-sama called for this meeting, I find it only reasonable that she be allowed to speak first. Hokage-sama, if you please."

"Thank you very much for so graciously hosting this meeting, Mifune-san," Tsunade began, speaking loudly, clearly, and quite diplomatically in Naruto's opinion. It was always a bit strange seeing her so serious in the role; usually she was much less formal. "Perhaps calling for such a gathering was a bit of an overreaction on my part but there has been quite a high amount of tension, strange occurrences, and border skirmishes between shinobi of Konoha and those of Iwa and Kumo. I thought it would be best if we could all meet formally to discuss matters and to perhaps put an end to these recent silly disputes."

Naruto was trying to get into the mindset of a Hokage for this meeting, thinking how he would deal with things and wanting to understand Tsunade's thoughts as well. It seemed that she wanted to slightly downplay how much things had escalated, citing strange occurrences instead of Iwa-nin venturing into Kusa and killing Kusa-nin. Or Kumo continuing to put more and more pressure on Hoshi in various ways. It'd be interesting to see if that was the right tone for the meeting; he knew he probably would have been direct. Then again, everyone always said he could be a bit too direct at times.

"With all due respect, Tsunade," it was not lost on him the rudeness of the Tsuchikage referring to Tsunade by her name rather than her title in this situation so that meant it would definitely not be lost on the more politically seasoned among them. "It is hard to believe the sincerity of your intentions when you would so willingly bring a shinobi who is in our very own bingo book for unjustifiable attacks on my shinobi."

"I assure you, I have no idea what you mean. Please explain why you should have a bounty on the heads of one of my most valued young shinobi."

"Rather recently, in Kusagakure, we have confirmed reports that this shinobi, Naruto Uzumaki," the man said the name in a way that made Naruto convinced he had a difficult time keeping a normal tone, "was seen by my own granddaughter to have, alongside a team of Kusa-nin, crossed over into the Land of Earth and killed several of my shinobi before destroying the Kanabi Bridge. I had a team sent out to take pictures, of both the fallen and the bridge." It was difficult to stay quiet whenever such a lie was being spoken. And it was obviously a deliberate lie because the Kusa team had not gone into the lands with him, staying behind on Grass Country's side of the bridge. Besides, Iwa had put him in the bingo book before that ever happened. Tsunade shot him a sideways glance, essentially telling him to keep his mouth shut, so he managed to resist.

"It is interesting you should say that, actually, because I have been informed that Naruto was first listed in the Bingo book before this mission that you decided to bring up. Additionally, Naruto himself has informed me that he first found dead Kusa-nin in the Land of Grass and was attacked by Iwa-nin within said country. Under these circumstances I have found his response and all actions taken to be reasonable and justified. Although, while we are on the subject, I definitely want to know exactly what Iwa-nin were doing in Grass Country?" He should have more faith in Tsunade to handle these types of things, he realized. She knew all the details just as he did, because he had told her everything either via report or personally, so he should be happy to learn from the way she used such information for her purposes in talking with the other Kage.

"You have no evidence that Iwa-nin were in Grass Country. Even if they were, they undoubtedly pursued your shinobi there in order to avenge their comrades. Obviously, while such actions are discouraged, they are within the realm of duty for any shinobi. Meanwhile, I can provide photo evidence of dead Iwa-nin, the destroyed Kanabi Bridge, and it is no secret that Kusa has recently turned its shoulder to Konoha, most likely due to this blatant act of aggression."

"Photographs are capable of being staged though I have no doubt Kanabi Bridge is destroyed. Upon seeing Iwa-nin in Grass Country, the reasonable assumption was made that a state of war existed. Given such belief, the destruction of the bridge was deemed necessary by both himself and the Kusa team with him. He would later learn that the leader of Kusagakure, Ayashi, arranged for Iwa-nin to take care of a few dissidents and wanted to offer a few Konoha-nin as leverage for a deal. Naruto rightfully responded to this revelation, which Ayashi himself spoke, by killing him. Kusa, perhaps, took it harshly." To some extent, he did regret his decision to kill that guy because it obviously was a huge negative to Konoha and Kusa's relations. So long as Ayashi was in power, however, the relationship was destined to sour anyway so he tried not to think about it too much.

"Preposterous! Kusa has long been no friend of Iwa, ever since the last war especially. Certain strategic decisions during the third war alienated us to them and they have been distant ever since. This story is entirely fabricated, unless you have some evidence?"

"The word of Naruto Uzumaki is all the evidence I could ever need. His actions have not been the point of conflict; only the motives. In such a case, I would absolutely believe my own shinobi with a proven track record as opposed to wild theories from secondhand accounts. I know anyone else in here would do the same."

"You should put so much faith in one shinobi, a shinobi who you just admitted killed the leader of a village that was your ally prior?" The older man scoffed, essentially mocking him.

"When it is Naruto, I would do so every time."

"Suna would also be willing to place its trust in Naruto's recounting of events above any other." Gaara spoke up, for the first time since the meeting started. He felt much more confident in everything after the way Tsunade and Gaara both said they would believe him because, in this particular instance, it was much more than that. It was telling the Tsuchikage that, regardless of any agenda the man may have had for this meeting, they were not going to give in.

"Perhaps, then, we should move on to discussing Hoshigakure and their recent hostile moves? They have raided our villages, engaged our shinobi, and begun claiming that certain civilian villages are within their sphere of influence that have always been understood to be ours. Now, while they would certainly never be willing to take such actions on their own, they could have been emboldened in some way."

Surprisingly, the Mizukage spoke for the first time and finally truly made it a summit of all Five Kage. "Raikage-sama, it seems rather difficult to believe that a minor village such as Hoshi would be willing to engage your shinobi."

"A village can do many things when their strongest ally begins pressuring them, Mizukage-sama. It would be unacceptable to write off such actions on account of their status as a minor village; even a minor hidden village is a village filled with warriors." It was like Tsunade said; the Raikage gave off the appearance of a man whom would only be concerned with his personal physical strength and fighting but he was more than capable of holding his own in a conversation and could be plenty clever when necessary. "There is also the fact that Hoshigakure is the only minor village which calls their leader a Kage, an affront to all the major villages."

"Their leader's status as a Kage has never been recognized, either by us or any of your villages as well. We have never considered it a substantial risk."

"I do not believe it is about the risk so much as it is about the principle that only the major villages may have a Kage," the Mizukage said which made him somewhat worried because, if the Tsuchikage and Raikage were going to continue to be so confrontational, then it would obviously be nice to have the Mizukage backing them a bit in the talks. At this point, she was the only Kage who seemed to be non-aligned. It seemed that Gaara was going to stick by their side but the Tsuchikage and Raikage were going to mostly be working together. After her two statements so far it did seem that she was somewhat neutral and in the middle but maybe things would change as things continued onward.

"In all official correspondence their leader does not use the name Kage; this is a non-issue in the grand scheme of things, and it is only being used to distract us from the topic at hand. It has been Kumo that has been escalating things in the area recently." He knew this was a pretty dangerous play from Tsunade; saying that what the Raikage and Mizukage said was not very important followed by accusing the Raikage of being the one making the situation worse. He would have mentioned his experiences visiting Hoshi and how they were not the types to start a situation like the Raikage described but obviously Tsunade could not really do that.

"I will not sit here and be accused of lying, Hokage-sama!" Something seemed wrong to him that, thus far, the elderly and extremely experienced Tsuchikage had been overly confrontational, accusatory, and rude whereas the younger Raikage was being more polite and more reasonable in his accusations. Hadn't he been told that Ohnoki was once known as the Fence-Sitter?

"Konoha called this meeting and thus far they have brought a wanted shinobi whom has confessed to killing the village leader of Kusa, have refused all evidence of their wrongdoing in favor of blind faith in said wanted shinobi, and have asserted that Raikage-sama has been less than honest. It is an embarrassment that they should call for this meeting to alleviate tension only to deny that they have been the main cause of said tensions."

"If we truly wish to avoid conflict, it is the job of all nations to admit to some fault in these matters; all blame cannot go to one source," Gaara said, cold and calculating as always. Maybe he was a bit biased, but it was hard for him to see exactly what Konoha had done wrong in this situation. He was attacked by Iwa in Kusa so reacted accordingly and, when he was betrayed by Ayashi, surely it was within reason to kill the guy before he could do any additional harm. Especially upon seeing him order Daisuke's death. No, the problem was not that Konoha had necessarily done anything wrong, and if they had it was nothing more than anyone else, but rather that the Tsuchikage and Raikage were both irrationally accusing them because they wanted a conflict. Yes, it was becoming clear to him now that the two of them had to actually want a fight to justify all their actions, and the thought occurred to him now that they likely had a plan coming into this summit.

"While I am not a major village leader like the five of you and try to worry little about matters not of my concern," Mifune began, sounding every bit like he was doing everything within reason to sound as neutral as possible, "it has reached even my ears that relations between villages have deteriorated recently. I have to wonder, is there anything in particular which caused this resurgence of tension? If it is as Konoha says, and Iwa sent troops into Kusa, then why should they have done it? Or, if it is as Iwa says and a Konoha shinobi unjustly attacked Iwa-nin, then what caused it? If Konoha ordered it, what caused them to recently take this step?"

"Mifune-san, in our history, there is no shortage of shinobi who have taken extreme actions to fulfill their own desires. Think back to the time when Kakazu, acting independently, attempted to kill the Shodaime Hokage. And then, of course, there was Itachi Uchiha." Was it a coincidence that both incidents mentioned involved Konoha? It seemed doubtful at this point. "I believe that what we are seeing here is easily enough explained as the actions of one shinobi, Naruto Uzumaki, who is abusing his personal relationship with Tsunade and Gaara to avoid blame." He promised that he would be as straight-faced as possible for this meeting though it was physically impossible for him to keep the scowl off of his face. He had to bite his lip to avoid reacting and he thought he tasted blood.

"That is an obscene accusation you have just made, Ohnoki. Accusing one of my shinobi, my most trusted shinobi at that, a shinobi which you have already placed a bounty on, of treason is not an offense that I shall treat lightly!" Tsunade slammed her fist onto the table, leaving an impression into the no-doubt high quality wood, as she finished her statement, clearly as offended as he was at the Tsuchikage's words if not moreso. It helped him regain his composure; of course Tsunade had his back. This entire meeting she had been nothing but supportive of him though it did make him feel strange that this summit has been so much about him so far.

"The escalation was only after the recent attack on Konoha by the Akatsuki. Much of the village was destroyed." If he had to guess, in his own way, Gaara was accusing Iwa and Kumo of trying to take advantage of Konoha's weakened state.

"I believe that, due to the resemblance of this Naruto Uzumaki to Minato Namikaze, and due to the similarity of their fighting techniques," the Raikage began, seeming perfectly calm when compared to Tsunade or Ohnoki, "that perhaps Tsuchikage-sama has exaggerated in his accusation. You have readily admitted, however, to the assassination of the leader of Kusagakure, and this is no small crime that can simply be looked over. The death of a village leader, Kage or not, is always a tragedy to their village and something must be done about this."

"And what should you propose, Raikage-sama?" Tsunade asked, obviously still irritated though clearly less than a moment ago. For his own part, he was really starting to realize that this summit was not going well and that it seemed incredibly unlikely that all the disputes would be solved. Or even that any of them would be solved.

"In order to assure total fairness in the prosecution of this crime, we place Naruto Uzumaki under arrest and have him held as a prisoner here, in the Land of Iron, wherein he should be treated as a high-value prisoner by Mifune-san. I think that a period of ten to fifteen years should be reasonable." On the one hand, he knew he should be accepting of having to sacrifice himself for peace for his village. On the other, even if they didn't treat him terribly, sitting in a cell for ten years was a torture all its own. That was really a long time; ten years ago, he'd been the no-good prankster orphan kid that everyone hated and now they called him the Hero of the Leaf. How much could things change, then, in the next ten years?

"I am not willing to imprison one of my shinobi for performing his duties! I'd go down in history as the most weak-willed of all the Kage!" Currently, he felt rather confused about the entire state of affairs. He understood perfectly that, in order to have peace, compromise would be needed on a lot of issues. What he couldn't decide, however, was if giving in to this particular deal would help anything at all given that the Tsuchikage and Raikage seemed to simply want a fight. That made him remember the way the Raikage looked at him earlier, and suddenly, he realized that the man did not expect Tsunade to take the offer but was likely just giving it so he could give the appearance of fairness when compared to the Tsuchikage. They'd probably met before the Summit and worked out how they wanted to behave.

"You'd be known as a peacemaker, Hokage-sama." Now, maybe he was looking into it too much, but the fact that the Raikage implied that imprisoning him would result in peace made it seem like the current status was practically being at war. He almost missed the days when an implication like that would have simply flown over his head and landed somewhere he didn't have to worry about.

"I'd be known as a coward. And you know what, I'd have earned it!" So far, this was the first time he could remember thinking that Tsunade was willing to lead the village in a war; hard to believe the woman was once afraid of blood.

"Given all that has been said and the inherent tension present in a meeting of such powerful leaders, I think it would be best to call for a brief recess in order to have a less pressure-filled setting to mull over further discussion. Can we all at least reach an agreement on that much?" It sounded like Mifune was also a little frustrated with the progress of the meeting and wanted to call for a break now that things seemed to have gotten a little out of hand.

There was a nod of heads from all the Kage, and he suspected Tsunade's was out of sheer frustration from speaking to Ohnoki and Ay.

"If I may make a request," the Mizukage said, "it seems this meeting has been rather heavily focused on one shinobi in particular, namely Naruto Uzumaki. And so, I must confess, I have felt a little excluded due to having not met him prior as Kazekage-sama seems to have or to be so familiar with his work as Tsuchikage-sama. For this reason, I wish to request a… personal… meeting with Uzumaki-san and that the recess last a total of, say, thirty minutes? So that I may properly get to know him and I may more properly participate in future discussion."

"Is that acceptable for you, Hokage-sama?" Mifune said.

"Sure? I mean, yes, yes it is" It sounded like Tsunade was as surprised as he was at the sudden request of the Mizukage. Additionally, there was something about the way she had worded it and the way she was looking at him that left him feeling a bit odd.

"Are there any objections from the other Kage?"

"If Mizukage-sama can feel safe around such an assassin then so be it" the older man said, to which Naruto found himself rolling his eyes. At this point, it was becoming hard to respect the man because he seemed so petty and hypocritical. Who could even say how many people Ohnoki had directly ordered to be killed, not to mention how many the man had killed on his own, on top of the fact that he had lead Iwa through massive wars where an entire generation of shinobi could be lost. To act morally righteous because he had killed the leader of a village, whom he had seen order the death of a loyal shinobi, was completely ridiculous. In fact, he started to assume that, based off of how the Tsuchikage and Raikage had treated him and spoken about him so far, they must have wanted to try to get him to make some kind of outburst that would make him look bad. Well, maybe before the Pein attack it would have worked, but he knew he could resist it now. He wasn't quite certain why he felt so sure about that though; he simply did.

"Now, if I didn't know better, I would think you're implying that I cannot defend myself Tsuchikage-sama. Surely that cannot be what you mean?" The Mizukage's voice was that dry, somewhat low tone that women like Tsunade and Sakura always seemed able to do, right before they made him regret whatever thing he had said or done just before.

"Ah, forgive me for misspeaking Mizukage-sama. I simply wished to advise caution, that is all. My apologies."

"If you would please follow me now, Uzumaki-san" she said, with a slanted smile and moving her pointer finger back and forth as if to indicate 'come here.' It was impossible not to feel every eye on him as he stepped next to her but she simply turned around and began walking down the hallway toward what he would now know as Kirigakure's rooms. "Ao, please stand guard outside the room." The man simply groaned, mumbling something under his breath that was silenced by, oddly enough, a calm smile from the woman.

They stepped inside the spacious room that was painted blue, which made sense as Konoha's had been painted a very light shade of red. Of course he was feeling extremely awkward at this point, not really knowing if he was supposed to say something, take a seat, or maybe do anything so instead he just stood by the door as he watched the woman simply move around.

"Welcome to my room, Naruto-kun. Oh, I hope you don't mind if I call you that."

"Of course not" he said immediately.

"My my, are you nervous? It's always so cute when the strong ones like you get flustered from a little harmless flirting.

"Fl-flirting?" He stumbled over the words and could feel his face turning red out of embarrassment. The Mizukage was flirting? He wished she would have made it more obvious but it definitely didn't make him feel any less awkward; if anything, it made it worse.

"I thought it might make talking to you seem less confrontational to the Raikage and Tsuchikage. But if it makes you blush like that I'm not sure I'll be able to stop, Naruto-kun." She was standing directly in front of him, looking him in the eyes with a smirk on her face and enjoyment obvious in her eyes. He did his best to keep the eye contact while regaining his composure; it would not do anyone any good if he kept looking like an idiot in front of probably the only neutral major village leader left.

"Hmm... you know something?" she asked, seemingly the moment he had actually managed to get himself back under control.

"What?"

Her eyes kinda drifted toward the ceiling and her voice took on a wistful, dreaming quality. "I bet you'd make a great husband."

And the control was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope all of the Kage are behaving in a believable enough way and, yes, I know Ohnoki seems a bit off but that should be reasonably explained enough either in this chapter or the next. Summit will be a simple Part 1 and Part 2. Usually in stories like this someone will come into the Summit and absolutely dominate (i.e. Ay and Ohnoki walk all over Tsunade or Tsunade walks all over them) but I feel they're pretty evenly matched at the table here. As always, I'm happy with the final product.
> 
> Thank you for reading. Please feel free to kudos/comment/bookmark!


	11. Five Kage Summit Part 2

He couldn't think of anything to say in response and was definitely redder than he had been before; that was just such a strange thing to hear someone like the Mizukage say; well, he would've thought it strange for anyone to say but the fact that she would say he'd 'make a great husband' was just not the kind of thing he expected to hear.

"Oh, sorry, did I say that out loud?" she said, perhaps a bit too innocently. "I was just thinking that you're clearly quite strong, based off your record. Hiraishin, S-ranked, Hero of the Leaf. You come to a summit of the five most powerful leaders in the Elemental Nations and you're the center of discussion. Clearly you have a lot of initiative if you were willing to destroy Kanabi Bridge and kill the leader of Kusa. But, you've still got a bit of an innocent side that's always so hard to come across in good shinobi." Her face transitioned to a wicked smirk all of a sudden. "Do you have someone special back in Konoha?"

She was really good at keeping him off-guard, he noticed. She talked in a way that was perfectly conversational, almost making him forget that she was the Mizukage and that, as a guard to the Hokage, he was considered a representative of Konoha. Even acknowledging that, however, was not enough for him to completely regain his composure. "N-no, I mean, not like what you mean. I, uhh, used to have a crush on my teammate but she's always been interested in our other teammate." Was he seriously talking about this with the Mizukage?

"Ah yes, the genin team love triangle. Always so cute yet so disastrous. Surely that can't be all though?"

"Yeah, that's it."

"Ah, I see. You know, I think you're just one of those men who has a hard time seeing it. I bet there's a girl back in Konoha who's been crazy about you for years and you've never even noticed." He felt himself calming down now; it was obvious the Mizukage didn't know about his life back in Konoha before he became a hero; there's no way anyone would feel like that for him. Girls like Sakura and Ino wouldn't even talk to him willingly for months after becoming genin and, really, he could only say that he became friends with either after his trip with Jiraiya. Before that, really only Hinata was nice to him at all but she was just too kind of a person to do anything else.

"I don't think that's possible, Mizukage-sama." His voice was slightly lower than usual, not that he noticed.

"Aww, so little confidence when it comes to women but apparently so decisive on missions. I apologize if I seem intrusive but it's one of the best ways I know to really learn about people." He was curious what, exactly, the redhead had been able to learn from his reactions and statements aside from the obvious because he doubted that she truly cared much about the things they were actually talking about. What had Kakashi once said? Underneath the underneath? Yeah, he had a strong feeling that is what the Mizukage was doing but there was no real harm in him being honest if he wanted the Mizukage to at least not align with the Raikage and Tsuchikage.

"It's fine; obviously I shouldn't, you know, fall apart so easily." After all that time with Jiraiya, he should have gotten used to talking about these kinds of things; Kami knows the pervert would talk about far far worse on a regular basis. However, the pervy sage always made talking about women so strange and awkward that he just chose to avoid the topic when at all possible during the training trip.

"Indeed; could be dangerous if an enemy used it to get to you. But anyway, I suppose that's enough of that. Don't want you flustered for all of our time together, Naruto-kun. If I'm being honest, I've found it quite humorous the effect you've had on the Tsuchikage. When I was preparing to take up my title and was studying all the foreign leaders, everything on him called him the 'fence-sitter' and referred to how much he liked reacting to situations instead of acting. That's why, I presumed, he's decided to hold on to his job for so long. But, a little Hiraishin, and you've got the old man up in arms."

"Yeah, I thought he was acting a bit differently than he should have been. Too aggressive and too rude for a Summit. In fact, I was thinking that it seemed like he and the Raikage might have met before now so they could work out how to behave."

"Hmm… how intuitive. I wasn't ready to claim that much because I have never personally met either of them but it is certainly a possibility." She had a point; it was a bit presumptuous for him to think something like that considering he had never seen the leaders before. Then again, he trusted his instincts when it came to reading people. "They would make sure it was not obvious so that is why they have not necessarily been supporting each other directly but they have both made moves against you and therefore Konoha. I do wonder, though, what makes you so special to the two of them?"

"Well, I can use Hiraishin and I just so happen to look like Yondaime-sama." He was formal in using his father's title because it was never made official that he was the Yondaime's son. Few people talked about it in Konoha, whether because they just accepted it or they had not made the connection he didn't know, and it really was not that big of a deal to him to be officially recognized since he had managed to live his whole life as Naruto Uzumaki, hated orphan turned into Hero of the Leaf. So, he did not want to accidentally reveal any classified information to the Mizukage even though, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and Hiraishin, at 17 years old when his dad died 17 years ago, they probably just assumed who he was accurately enough.

"Minato Namikaze; you know, we in Kiri don't have many stories of him slaughtering our shinobi but, from what I hear, we should count ourselves lucky he had to focus mostly on Iwa. I suppose I could understand his ire if you should become the next Minato; after all, Minato's actions on that front single-handedly turned the tide of the war. Iwa became desperate enough for a victory that they turned on Kumo; even though they weren't allied, it was clear they were ignoring each other almost entirely in the fighting until then. That didn't go well either, then the war was over. I suppose Ohnoki put all the blame for the dead, even those who died to Kumo, on Minato." A frown crossed her face suddenly, likely something that contradicted their theory. "But what about Ay? I can't think of why he should be involved in this."

"From the way he was looking at me earlier, I think he wants a fight."

"Simple, but not impossible. Would likely know about Minato's greatness and would see fighting you as the chance to surpass it." She was mumbling to herself, though loud enough for him to hear. "Alright, I'll buy it until we know more. But, you should keep in mind that Konoha's just been attacked and he could simply be trying to take advantage." The Mizukage seemed to have been lost in thought before her eyes lit up and that smirk he was quickly becoming familiar with came back to her face. "My my, look at me, talking politics with someone who's supposed to just be a guard. You seem to be quite clever for someone your age, Naruto-kun." She was standing closer to him now, looking softly into his eyes with that expression still on her face. Knowing fully well the antics of the woman at this point, he only blushed slightly.

"W-well, my dream's always been to become the strongest Hokage. To protect the people of Konoha as much as possible. So, I've been making sure to talk about these things with Hokage-sama when I can." He chose not to make it obvious that he was close to Tsunade, just to be on the safe side. It felt like he constantly reminded himself that the woman in front of him was not an ally, at least not yet. Thus far, he felt he had done a good job of managing his words.

"You seem to be well on your way." He couldn't help it; he had a big, bright, stupid grin on his face from hearing such a thing from someone like the Mizukage. "Ah, so that's the way to your heart." She said, laughing. "For some it's food, for some it's passion, but for you it's support. I think it is time I be a bit more honest with you, Naruto-kun. I fully expect Ay and Ohnoki to do something drastic when we're out of this recess. Raikage-sama sent a messenger to me approximately one month ago and, of course he was smart enough to have nothing too obvious, but he asked me if I supported the attack on Uzugakure."

"Huh? What's that village have to do with what's happening now?" He did not really know much about the destruction of his clan's ancestral home; all he really knew was that it was a place that existed and then, after the last war, did not.

"It was a temporary alliance between Kumo, Iwa, and Kiri to work together to destroy the village because we all recognized their strength and importance to Konoha. It seems like so long ago; I wasn't even a genin yet when that dreadful war started with the attack on Uzu."

"So, the Raikage mentioning it, implied that he wanted to renew the alliance? Maybe less temporarily this time?"

"Precisely. I replied 'Starting a war is always a tragedy though sometimes a necessity."

"Basically meaningless? To keep you from being seen as an enemy or an ally?"

"Pretty much. And then, very shortly after, I received the invitation to this Summit from your Hokage and became rather certain of when Ay would make a move. I have no reason whatsoever to support Konoha and Suna or Iwa and Kumo in any fighting. The civil war in Kiri was too brutal for us to risk a large-scale conflict, especially when there is still so much distrust in our ranks."

"I understand that, but surely you know that it would be in your worst interests to have someone actually win this war." Okay, this was the time for risks. Mei had pretty much driven all of their conversation thus far but he knew that, if he was going to somehow get them to their side, he needed to say something. So, he decided to mention the somewhat obvious 'you don't want one side to win and then turn on Kiri' which, given that she would know that Konoha had been largely destroyed mere months ago and had lost Kusa as an ally, would imply who she should side with.

She stood there for a moment, seeming to be lost in thought. "Of course, but as Mizukage, I understand it is in the best interest of Kirigakure to officially stay neutral." She spoke in a voice that was so official that it seemed to be sarcastic. "Unfortunately, I believe there are some of my shinobi who may not see things in such a light. I fully expect that, should war officially begin, they would become missing-nin and seek contract work for a foreign village. Before now I was uncertain, but I've decided they would probably go to Konoha."

His eyes went wide at the woman's implications; officially speaking, Kiri would offer no aid whatsoever to any village though, unofficially, several shinobi from Kiri would be sent to the village of the Mizukage's choice as a token of good will, undoubtedly so they were in their good graces after the fighting. Or, if that village lost, they'd be condemned to be missing-nin forever and the woman could deny everything. For that reason, they were likely going to be volunteers. It seemed like the Mizukage would use this expeditionary force to help Konoha. Of course, Kumo and Iwa were probably going to assume that it was not actually a group of missing-nin but it wouldn't be enough for them to want to fight another hidden village.

"It… it's a shame that they would desert Kiri?" He was trying to play along with the woman's act, on the off chance that she would be mad if he didn't.

"And the worst thing is that one of my most promising shinobi will likely be one of them! Someone I trusted enough to be my personal guard. Oh Chojuro, how could he do this to me! I was so heartbroken that I had this scroll made with pictures of all the likely defectors, so you'd be able to identify them easily." She handed him the aforementioned document, hidden somewhere in her robes prior.

"I'll make sure we keep an eye out for these missing-nin. Especially Chojuro, seeing as he must be dangerous to have been in your guard." Well, at least he knew there should be at least one strong shinobi in the Kiri group. If this guy was one of her guard then he had to be good and it was believable enough since she had come to the meeting with only one guard.

"Thanks, I knew I could count on you Naruto-kun. With any luck, though, they won't have to defect at all. But, it's best to plan ahead, right?" Basically a 'hopefully there's not a war, but if there is' statement. "Oh my, look at that, our time together is already coming to an end. Where do the minutes go!"

"I'm not..." she leaned in closely to him, until her lips were right next to his ear. "s-sure?"

"Be careful, Naruto-kun. The handsome ones always seem to die first." And then he felt her lips touch his cheek ever so slightly, so softly that he almost would have believed to have imagined it except for the immediate way his body reacted; he could feel his face turn red within moments. Before he could even begin to get his mind under control, and really it was absolutely embarrassing that he was able to be flustered so easily but thinking about that only made him feel redder, she pulled him out the door. He was walking alongside her automatically as he tried to process everything, the main question in his head being a mixture of "What?" and "Why?"

Of course, the Mizukage was a good-looking woman, but a kiss? Well, it wasn't really a kiss but it kinda was; at least it was just on the cheek. He hardly wanted his first kiss to be with some woman he barely knew; it needed to be someone special. Oh wait, his first kiss had been with… he needed to stop this line of thought immediately. He starting thinking about the Hiraishin jutsu, all the areas he needed to improve in it. He needed to use less chakra when using it, needed to be able to control the stance he appeared in, and definitely needed to focus on learning…

"Ah, welcome back Mizukage-sama. The allotted time for the recess was just about to end and we may now reconvene." Mifune said. He could see the Raikage and Tsuchikage looking at him, and he knew his face was still quite red. Thankfully, there was something about having their eyes on him that quickly helped to reduce that problem and everything was under control by the time he was at Tsunade's side. The woman was looking at him with a look in her eye which clearly had plenty of questions though obviously he couldn't answer any of them at the moment with their current company. Suddenly, it clicked in his mind that, if Mei had been flirting when she asked to meet with him as she said she was, then it only worked in their favor if he was blushing upon returning. It made it look like whatever they talked about was far from anything important.

"I hereby announce the Summit to once again be in session."

He also noticed there was no longer a fist-shaped dent in front of Tsunade; had they replaced the table?

"I am not entirely sure what else there is to discuss," Ohnoki began, "seeing as how clearly Konoha has decided they are faultless and that attacking shinobi of another nation in that nation's borders is acceptable!" The Tsuchikage really did not miss a beat.

"Hasn't this already been discussed Tsuchikage-sama? Our recounting of events is different from yours and put my shinobi, namely Naruto Uzumaki, well within his duties. As I have been informed by my ANBU agent here," she pointed at Swan, "I still have the mission request from Ayashi, that's Kusa's now deceased head jounin, which sent Naruto to Kusa, in which it stated that Iwa-nin had been increasingly spotted in Grass Country. I can have it retrieved in no time at all."

"There'd be no way to verify such a document with the man dead! Only a fool would trust such evidence."

"Just as there's no way to verify the circumstances of the photographs you proposed as evidence earlier?" Tsunade asked, with a raised eyebrow. Naruto had to resist a smirk; apparently the break had been good for her.

"I think it's clear that the specifics of the Kusa Incident are debatable. It hardly seems proper usage of our time discussing it further" Gaara said, to which Ohnoki scoffed.

"Young people these days, no respect..." the man said lowly though clearly enough that everyone would have heard. Of course, there was no reaction at all on Gaara's face though Kankuro scowled.

"I can agree with Kazekage-sama that the specifics are certainly up for questioning. There can be no denying that he assassinated the village leader, however."

"An action that Konoha and Kusa can work out independently, without outside interference" Tsunade hastily added.

"Hmph, seems that Konoha always thinks it's the only one that should be able to resolve issues. What, are the rest of us Kage not capable enough to mingle in your affairs? But you're plenty able to mingle in ours."

"If I should sit here and be accused of meddling in others' affairs as a Kage then it is the same as accusing a fisherman of fishing or a blacksmith of smithing. There is no point denying that, as Kage, all of us have in some way or another asserted our influence. If Tsuchikage-sama would like to point to specific instances where I have overstepped my bounds, however, I am willing to listen." An interesting decision by Tsunade to say that all of them mingled in each others' business, instead of denying it. Even on the most basic level it was true though; of course all five of the villages interacted with each other frequently in some way or another.

"I believe that we have all had enough; this Summit is about concluding matters and discussing topics such as this would have us debating until I'm dead of old age." In a way, it was kind of funny to think of the Raikage dying of old age before the Tsuchikage, though he doubted that was intended. "For this reason, I propose we have a direct vote of the imprisonment of Naruto Uzumaki."

"Very well, Raikage-sama. However, before such a vote can take place, surely the accused should speak for themselves. Naruto, go ahead." He was caught off guard by finally being encouraged to speak and, for a moment, his mind went completely blank as to what he should say. After a deep breath or two, however, he managed to find his voice.

"I do not regret anything I had to do. Having spent a few days with Daisuke, the jounin that Ayashi ordered to be poisoned along with myself, I understood him to be a good man. Funny, observant, truly cared about his genin team. The three genin with him, Tadashi, Natsuko, and Hitachi, were all interesting in their own ways and they all seemed to respect Daisuke. He truly cared for his village and never spoke ill toward Konoha or even Ayashi. Now those three genin have to deal with losing their sensei and likely don't even know the truth. If you ask me, losing Daisuke was a much greater loss to Kusa than Ayashi." He took a deep breath, thinking about what he wanted to say. This could be the last time he ever spoke in front of all the Kage at once and he did not want to just talk about something that was clearly just a sideshow.

"It's been clear from the start of this meeting that Raikage-sama and Tsuchikage-sama have been unfairly accusing Konoha and me especially. They've been trying to take advantage of Konoha's position after the Pein attack and will continue trying to do it if we let them. Some people would say that I should just go to prison, for the good of my village. However, I dream of a day where we will all have true peace. And true peace involves compromise, not just completely giving in to others' demands which can only buy time." He felt a surge go through him, total confidence filling him as he prepared his next statement. The Hyuuga Incident in particular came to his mind though he thought it best not to mention it explicitly. "I will protect my village from all threats. I promise." So long as he could do anything about it, Konoha would never again be reduced to a crater.

"Very well; if that is all, the voting may now commence" Mifune said, without much in the way of fanfare.

"Yay." The Raikage began.

"Nay." Tsunade immediately followed.

"Nay." Gaara.

"Yay." The Tsuchikage.

Tie vote and the final decision came down to the Mizukage. Of course, despite the fact that the woman had said she would lend some support to Konoha in the case of fighting, he could not help but feel a little nervous. After all, it's not like there was some official agreement between the two and she could have changed her mind in the minutes between then and now.

"I abstain." She said calmly, which made a lot of sense to him based on how she had been playing things the entire time. A vote in favor would have been supporting Iwa and Kumo and a vote against would have been supporting Konoha and Suna, both options she seemed against due to wanting to keep Kiri neutral so soon after getting out of a civil war.

"This is an absolute outrage!" The Tsuchikage said in a raised voice, "This entire Summit has been nothing but a travesty, another display by Konoha that they want to be in charge of all of us but never take any blame. Well, I for one have had enough of it! From this day forward, Konoha is to be considered a hostile village and will be handled accordingly."

"You're going to be sentencing thousands of shinobi to their deaths with this act, Ohnoki!" Tsunade dropped the Tsuchikage-sama act now, her calm demeanor shattered due to the realization that Iwa had just declared war.

"Then so be it! If I know my ninja then I know it should be with a smile on their face if it is taking action against Konoha." Briefly, he reflected to those two Iwa-nin he first killed in the forests of Kusa, the way that they had seemed excited to fight.

"Naturally, Suna will stand beside its ally." Gaara said, straight-faced as always.

"Hmph, it hardly seems fair that Iwa should be in a two-on-one fight for trying to pursue fairness! Kumo will not stand for this and will join alongside Tsuchikage-sama in this struggle."

Tension filled the air as the killing intent of four Kage alongside almost all the guards poured out and, were any of them not elite ninja, it is likely they would have passed out from the sheer intensity of the powerful auras. Despite the enemies he had fought, Zabuza and Orochimaru coming to the front as the most intimidating, he could feel his hands shaking slightly. This was nothing, however, compared to the way that Mifune's samurai guardsmen reacted; they had their hands on their swords and it was possible to actually hear the sword sheathes vibrating

"Well then, I suppose it's fair to say this Summit can now be concluded. I hope all of you are pleased to have started the Fourth Shinobi World War." Given the outcome, he figured that Mifune would probably regret having hosted the meeting since the Land of Iron would be forever tied together in history with the start of a war.

"A necessary action, for tyranny must be fought against!"

"A waste of life! But if you think this means that Konoha will falter in standing up for itself then you shall be proven wrong, Ohnoki. Come, Naruto, Swan, we're leaving." Tsunade stood up out of her chair, scowl on her face and anger visible enough in her eyes.

Naruto knew how he should feel. He should feel panicked because it would be almost certain in any prolonged conflict that some of his friends would die. He should feel despair because there would be many, many people killed in the fighting and all of those people would likely have family and friends that would miss them dearly. He should feel worried because, at his current strength, there could still be enemies out there that could defeat him, especially if he had to fight anyone like the Raikage. He should feel confused because he had promised Nagato and Jiraiya that he would bring about a world of peace and yet, apparently, his mere learning of a jutsu had been enough to start a World War.

So why did he feel calm?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well: Mei is such a flirt! Of course that's just one of the ways she tries to figure him out and is not indicative of any pairing decision
> 
> Naruto's dad being the Yondaime is technically still classified though obviously a lot of people are reaching that conclusion. After Naruto and Mei's meeting, the vote was essentially a way for Ay and Ohnoki to make sure Kiri would not be aligning with Konoha. And it was somewhat difficult to find a natural way to have the war declared, but I think I did it! Who could have guessed they'd actually start a war? [Besides, you know, people who read the summary and the Chapter 1 Author's Notes). And yes, this Kage Summit was not interrupted. It IS possible to write one that's just a Summit!
> 
> Thank you all for reading; please feel free to kudos/comment/bookmark.


	12. Konoha's War Council

While they had taken their time getting to the Summit, even walking to keep up appearances, they did no such thing in returning to Konoha. Tsunade set a blistering pace in reaching the village, making the trip which had prior taken a week less than two full days. Never one to mince words, she made an official announcement immediately that Konoha and Suna were now in a state of war with Iwa and Kumo and that it should be expected that allied villages to all nations would also join the fighting in some capacity. Of course, in that time, Naruto had told her that Kiri would be sending a small force led by one of the Mizukage's bodyguards to help out under the guise of being missing-nin but she had not told the village that. As far as they knew they would be a group of missing-nin who just so happened to show up.

So far the news had sent shockwaves throughout the village. There were people boasting about all they were going to accomplish during the war and of course there were plenty of shinobi and citizens angry at Iwa and Kumo and blaming them for the ordeal. He had even heard a few people blaming Tsunade which was completely outrageous as far as he was concerned but he knew that not everyone knew the Hokage as well as he did and nobody but him and Swan actually saw her at the Summit. Regardless of how they took things, however, it was clear that the entire village was moving faster than it had been before, the grim news putting a jolt into everyone's steps. As he walked to the Military Headquarters, he really couldn't help but hope that the Hokage Tower would be back working again soon. It looked finished to him already, from what he could see of it, but he figured maybe they were putting furniture in it or something.

"Oh wow, see, it's him!" he heard from a childish voice somewhere to his left. He got the feeling that the kid was talking about him because, since the Nagato attack, it had actually become kind of common to hear things like that. It still did not exactly feel normal, though; he couldn't help but think to all those times, when he was a kid, when he'd walk somewhere and the other kids would say 'oh, it's him' in disgust and either walk away or pretend he didn't exist. He still was not sure which was worse between the two. He heard footsteps coming up to him and turned toward the child, a smile on his face. Sure, it may have felt a bit strange to hear the way kids talked to him now, but it also felt pretty awesome.

"Oh hey, Uzumaki-sama, you got a second?" The child was pretty short, and based on his appearance, Naruto felt sure he was about ten years old. Hearing that honorific used with his clan name sounded so formal; he couldn't think to do anything but rub the back of his neck out of slight embarrassment.

"Just calling me Naruto works for me. And yeah, just heading to see Tsunade-sama but I have a second. What'd you need?"

"Oh, well, if you're doing something important then don't worry about it Naruto-sama!" Well, being addressed in that way was not much better but if it's what the kid wanted to do then who was he to tell him not to. At least it was less formal.

"Come on, did you want to ask me something? Go ahead." Well, maybe it was kind of important that he get to the 'Hokage's office' rather quickly, considering that he had only been dismissed from Tsunade a few hours earlier and was already being summoned. Still, he figured that they were capable of waiting for maybe the two minutes he would lose by taking part in this conversation. Besides, he kind of figured that Tsunade would have been busy with some kind of war council and planning and all kinds of stuff like that. If he had to guess, he would say that had something to do with the lack of clan shinobi around at the moment. Chances were that the available ones were called to their clan compounds for an emergency meeting about the war.

"Oh, alright then. You see, I'm an academy student and I want to be a shinobi just like you. In fact, you're my favorite shinobi! Though, it's a shame so much on you is classified. Anyway!" The kid interjected, interrupting himself from talking in a way that made Naruto chuckle. "I was just wondering if you had any tips? You know, about the Academy."

"Ah, that's a super easy one to answer!" Someone asking him for help with the Academy; Iruka-sensei would probably laugh until he passed out if he knew about that. "When I was in school, here's what I did. I skipped class, slept when I showed up, focused more on pulling off pranks than studying for tests, didn't practice throwing kunai on my own because I thought it wasn't cool," the sheer irony of that last statement almost physically burned, "and graduated dead last of my class. So, as long as you work hard and train harder, you'll definitely graduate and be a great ninja!" And hopefully the war would be over before the kid had to worry about it.

The boy's eyes were wide and shining bright as he ran back in the direction he had come from, giving an enthusiastic fist pump along the way. Amazing, really, that he probably had not told that child a single thing that he would not have already known but it made him so excited anyway. Briefly, he saw two more kids appear out of nowhere, looking at the other kid, talking but nowhere near loud enough for him to hear. He couldn't imagine any reason why the others hadn't been willing to come out and talk to him as well; it wasn't like he had ever done anything to appear unapproachable. At least, not that he could think of.

The rest of the trip to the Hokage Tower was mostly uneventful though he did exchange momentary greetings with a few more people than usual; he assumed it was due to the war declaration though he was not really sure how going to war would make a person more likely to say hello. That was definitely something more suited to Sakura or maybe Shikamaru to think about but there was no way he was going to bother either of them with something that probably wasn't too important. Even if Sakura's responsibilities as the chief-medic had gone away with Tsunade's recovery, his teammate was still very busy. Apparently, it had become her job to take over a large portion of medic-nin training with Tsunade and Shizune focusing on more typical Hokage duties. With the war going on, he wondered if Sakura was going to be completely responsible now. And then Shikamaru would probably just call it troublesome.

"Ah, glad you could make it Uzumaki-san" the now familiar voice of the one-eyed Hokage adviser Danzo said as soon as he entered the tent.

"Yo, Naruto." The lazy voice of Shikaku Nara followed soon after. Looking around, he saw Tsunade, Shikaku, and Danzo. The absence of Shizune and those two other Hokage advisers that he kept forgetting to ask the names of was somewhat surprising, especially Shizune since he got the impression Tsunade did not exactly like those other advisers very much so their absence could be because she wanted it. Then again, it's not exactly like she was a fan of Danzo either.

"With Naruto here, I believe that the War Council of Konohagakure can now begin." If he had not spent so much time around Tsunade, he was certain that he would not have picked up the slight hint of irritation in her voice at the statement. Naturally, it made him wonder what exactly she was irritated at, and if it had anything to do with him, but given she was the Hokage and the village was at war he figured it could have been anything.

"This is a war council? I kinda figured there'd be more people. And, you know, more clan heads."

Tsunade answered without much hesitation. "Shikaku is not here as the Nara clan head; he is here as the Jounin Commander. In times of war, the true war council shall consist only of those whom the Hokage chooses and should include only those whom can be entirely trusted to betray no secret." Due to Tsunade's tone, he got the feeling that she was reciting some kind of law about the subject. Or maybe a line from some secret scroll passed down from Hokage to Hokage detailing all their advice? That actually sounded pretty awesome. Although, now that he thought about it, it seemed odd that Danzo should be present. And why… "Shizune is not here because, while I trust her entirely, we all agreed that her presence would be unnecessary and really she can be more involved in areas she's needed more." It was like Tsunade had read his mind.

"The other clan heads will have their input in regular meetings as, in times of war, clan heads are not permitted to leave the village without approval from Hokage-sama herself." Danzo, seemingly as always, spoke in a perfectly calm and level voice. "But, they are generally not a part of this war council due to the very real possibility that one clan head should seek to subvert Konoha for their own gain. They shall participate and aid the village, as they should, though the information they are given is filtered for our safety."

"So, why am I here?" It seemed a reasonable enough question to ask. There were only three people present from the entire village at the small assembly; the Hokage, the Jounin Commander, and Danzo. While Danzo did not exactly hold the grandest title as an adviser to the Hokage, the man had been an active shinobi who worked under the Nidaime in the Second War, worked alongside the Sandaime in the Third War, and helped the Hokage deal with crises from the Kyuubi Attack to Orochimaru's betrayal to the Sand-Oto invasion. Compared to that kind of resume, he almost felt like he'd barely done anything. All his accomplishments, from defeating Gaara back in the Chuunin Exams to defeating Nagato, had merely been his duty as a shinobi.

Surprisingly, Shikaku answered. "I suggested it, Hokage-sama said that your loyalty was beyond question, Danzo said you would add an interesting perspective, and so here you are as a guest. Of course, we would be willing to accept you as a more permanent member of our fun little group, but that would prevent you from being on mission duty and I doubt anyone wants that." Shikaku was the one that suggested he be taken as a guest to the meeting? Well, that was certainly surprising. He could understand if Tsunade or Danzo had done it but what reason could Shikaku possibly have? And yeah, there was no way he was going to be taken away from mission duty at a time like this; his village needed him doing as many missions as possible.

"Thank you for the breakdown, Shikaku. However, let us waste no more time. The topic at hand is simple: how to handle the war with Kumo and Iwa. I'll start." She cleared her throat as she prepared to speak. Naruto got the impression that Tsunade was being very professional which, aside from the Kage Summit, he was still not quite used to seeing from her. He supposed that someone like Tsunade, someone who had actually experienced the worst of the last war and whom had lost her loved ones to war, needed a way to cope with the situation. Maybe she even took the whole declaration a little personally? "As it stands, the village is already receiving emergency funding from the Daimyo to help us rebuild. Of course, I am going to request further funding but we cannot know if we will receive it. Having met the Daimyo, however, I do know he is not going to be happy that the other daimyo would agree to these actions against us."

He didn't really have anything to say to that; it seemed more like a statement than anything he was intended to respond to. When neither Danzo or Shikaku said anything, he figured he had read the situation correctly. "The first step to mounting a successful war effort will be to get our allies to join our side officially in the fighting. As luck would have it, Naruto was sent on a mission to Takigakure years ago and, based on reports, knows the current village leader. Since that mission, Taki has been very consistently pro-Konoha. Therefore, I think we should only have to send someone as a diplomat and they should join us easily."

Honestly, he had almost forgotten all about that mission to Taki! Such a strange thing to have been sent on a mission there at the exact time that someone was trying to overthrow the place but, then again, he always did have weird luck that way. Win a jackpot gambling, get stuck with a demon inside his body kind of luck. When he thought about it, he began to realize just how odd his time as a genin was. He had stopped overthrows in Hoshi and Taki while getting to know the current village leaders of both! How many genin could claim that? Besides, of course, Sakura and Sasuke.

"That sounds good; maybe I should write Shibaki a letter too? It's been way too long since I've seen him; wonder how he's running the place."

Danzo nodded his head ever so slowly, his one eye almost closed as usual. "Yes, I would say both of those suggestions are appropriate. However, we must ensure that whomever is sent is a strong shinobi, in case our enemies should be taking action against Taki already."

"Kakashi should be available; a bit of a waste sending someone of his abilities for an errand but he also has the skills necessary in diplomacy."

"Very well; Kakashi Hatake will be sent to Taki to assure their involvement in the fighting and to discuss future cooperation. Naruto will write a letter to the village leader in order to remind him of their prior interaction." Well, that made it sound like he was doing it for pure political gain but he really did want to check in with the guy! "The next matter is that of Amegakure; while they have been distant in recent memory, they never rescinded their alliance with us. Unfortunately, they are still a bit of an unknown."

"Well, Nagato's friend Konan should be in charge of things in Amegakure. She would be opposed to the idea of a war but she said she would believe that Nagato made the right choice in trusting me. So, Ame should be willing to join us." Konan would probably be just as confused as he was at the idea that, somehow, he would bring a world of peace from the ashes of war. However, based on what he'd seen, she would do it to honor Nagato's final action.

"Interesting; I shall have an envoy sent to Ame as well then."

"You know it's not normal to know so many village leaders, right Naruto?" Shikaku asked, in that Nara way where he really could not tell how serious the man was being.

"I guess the line of duty makes me meet a lot of people?"

"Anyway, that brings us into more pressing matters. Hoshigakure. A long time ally of our village, and another one with a village leader that Naruto knows from a mission, we have every reason to believe that they are at extreme risk due to their proximity to Kumo and Kumo's allies. Then, there's also the matter that Kumo has already been harassing them since the Pein attack. Suggestions?"

"As it would turn out, I have received an anonymous tip," Danzo began, Naruto assuming the man was talking about his Root forces, "which states that Kumo has already established a forward operating base in the Land of Bears." It occurred to him that, in order for that to be true, it was almost a certainty that Kumo would have been working on setting up before the Summit had officially taken place. "Now, I believe it should be possible to muster a sufficient shinobi force to strike this temporary base quickly which should seriously hamper Kumo's effectiveness in the area. This will buy Hoshi more time to prepare a defense which, of course, means they will be more useful as an ally in the future." Although he still did not know Danzo particularly well, for the man was always sure to only speak when he wanted and about what he wanted, it really went without saying that if Danzo suggested helping anyone then it was for the express purpose of helping Konoha.

"That is certainly very interesting; however, how can we be sure we can trust this anonymous tip? After all, it's already strange it should go to you instead of Hokage-sama." It almost sounded like Shikaku was… teasing Danzo?

"No point playing games, Shikaku. We both know that Danzo has his methods and his intel is as reliable as any shinobi can gather." The Nara just shrugged his shoulders in response. It seemed that Shikaku did not really like the idea of relying on Root intelligence, whether because he did not like the anonymity or did not trust Danzo he wasn't sure. Even though he knew Tsunade was not exactly a fan of Danzo or the man's personal special ops forces, he guessed that she was willing to go along with it at a time like this. It made him wonder, though: if Tsunade didn't do anything about Root in a time of peace, and wouldn't do anything about it while at war, would she ever do anything about it? Or had she accepted it as a dirty necessity, like Danzo said it was?

"Very well. Even assuming the intel is reliable, I say that it is the wrong decision. As it stands it is safe to assume we will be outnumbered by Kumo and Iwa. Additionally, they must have been using the time since the Nagato attack preparing. They likely already have plans made and have already been receiving wartime funding from their respective Daimyo. Then there's also the fact that both Iwa and Kumo want to fight with our village. Why is that important? Well, it means that their forces near Hoshi will still be prepared for an attack by us. For these reasons, I think it should be better if we focus on using our shinobi in a defensive manner, especially until we receive confirmation from Taki and Ame. Once we know for certain they are on our side, and we've seen our enemies' opening moves, we can discuss offense."

Danzo seemed to take everything in stride, beginning to talk mere seconds after Shikaku had finished. "The dog that reacts to the snake bite has already lost, Shikaku. We cannot afford to lack initiative or the enemy will always have the advantage. While I do support an overall defensive posture for the beginning stages, I do not think we can pass this opportunity. A war cannot be won by allowing the enemy to dictate the flow; we must be willing to attack." It was easy enough to understand the logic of both men. Shikaku wanted to stay defensive while Konoha prepared itself in order to minimize danger while Danzo wanted to attack in order to not allow the enemy to proceed as they planned.

"I do not disagree with you on this matter, Danzo; however, should it really be worth risking our shinobi? It would have to be at least four teams of shinobi in order to reliably do any damage and they would all need to be highly skilled to have any hope of success. I understand fully well that we will need to take offensive actions but it should be after we know more about our enemies and our allies."

"I'll take the mission" he said, without really needing to think about it further. If Shikaku agreed with Danzo fundamentally that it was something that could be beneficial to the overall war effort then he did not need to know much more. They were all now looking at him. "Since I can use so many shadow clones, I'm not going to need more than a team to get it done. So it won't take away too many of our best shinobi. And, with the Hiraishin, I can move around more quickly than the Kumo-nin will be able to react. With any luck, I'll be able to do a lot of damage to the base before anyone knows what's going on and we can get out of there before they can organize." He also did want to try to help Hoshi but he was not really too sure if that would help him get picked for this mission.

"Hmm… an interesting proposal, Naruto. You can attempt to pull this off and we should still have plenty of our top shinobi and ANBU available to help defend Fire Country. However, there's no denying the danger, even to a shinobi of your caliber. The quantity and quality of the Kumo-nin at this base are still unknown. I would presume Danzo's anonymous informant risked his life to even confirm its existence. Additionally, it must be assumed that their time preparing would also include preparing against the Hiraishin."

"Gaki..." Tsunade began, "I don't want to let you take this mission. Every part of me wants to tell you that it is too dangerous. But," she added, before he could interrupt her, "I'm going to let you do it anyway. If you're confident that you can get it done, and that it's worth it, then I'll assign it to you as of now. Did you have a particular team in mind?" Well, he was a little surprised really that Tsunade was not more opposed to the idea since she always did have a thing against sending him on tough missions. Then again, most of the time he wanted them, he had been a thirteen year-old genin so maybe she did have a point back then.

He needed a team, and it needed to be a good team with skills that matched the assignment. When he was Hokage, this was the kind of thing he would be doing on a daily basis so he really wanted to try to get it perfect here. The mission was to attack an enemy operating base in the Land of Bears. Given that the base was in hostile territory to the Kumo-nin, they would undoubtedly be defending it pretty heavily. So, to get in close, they were going to need to do a bit of infiltration. It'd be impractical to fight their way to the base since they would be outnumbered heavily and the base would be prepared by the time they made it.

"I'll need a Hyuuga. Neji or Hinata, either one works." The Byakugan should be perfect to help get them in close to the base undetected since they would be able to see the enemy shinobi long before they would be seen in return. It would also be a pretty good idea to have someone who would be able to get information from the enemy so that they could get more specific details about the base. "Ino would be perfect too." Using Neji/Hinata's doujutsu, they could find an isolated shinobi, take them out, then have Ino use her Yamanaka techniques to get the needed intel. With that handled, the best choice to round out the team would be a good fighter. Someone whose specialty was specifically combat so they wouldn't use their chakra on other matters. Sakura would probably be ideal, since she could handle taijutsu and be a medic-nin, but she really was needed in the village and, besides, hadn't Ino learned a bit of medical jutsu as well? He was sure he heard that from Sakura at some point. Only one name was left in his mind. "Lee would also be good to have."

"An interesting selection but I can definitely understand why you would think of them," Tsunade praised, making him smile slightly. "For a mission against Kumo, however, it is definitely going to be less of an issue getting Neji than Hinata due to clan politics. And, while I don't approve of their seal, it would make taking Neji less of a risk as well. I do not, however, want to assign any of your choices to this mission. Neji could possibly have personal issues interfering due to the way his father died while Ino and Lee are both still Chuunin. For that reason," she continued quickly, as she did earlier, so that he would not interrupt. Really, maybe she knew him a bit too well. "I'm going to make this mission volunteer only. It will go down as S-ranked, with the associated pay, but it will only be undertaken if you get Neji, Ino, and Lee to agree to do it. Additionally, while you should not give mission specifics, the Hyuuga and Yamanaka clan heads should approve as well. Does that sound fair?"

"Hai." Well, he was absolutely certain that Lee would agree. Neji would also not need much convincing, in all likelihood. It may be a bit of an issue getting Ino, since he really did not know her that well, but he was sure he would find a way. The bigger issue would be getting the Hyuuga and Yamanaka clan leaders to consent.

"Very well; onto the next subject. The ongoing rebuild." Would they mind if he just left now? With a sigh, he realized they probably would. Tsunade continued. "Based on the speed things had been progressing, we expected before the Summit that the village would be nearly entirely rebuilt in approximately five more months, with essential buildings taken care of in two. Of course, this projection assumed that a large amount of our shinobi force would be able to participate in the rebuild. Naturally, the outbreak of war will mean most of those shinobi will be on mission or otherwise active and thus cannot be counted on. Unfortunately, this is going to slow down our efforts immensely. With a mostly civilian rebuild, it's now expected to take nine months with essentials done in four. Thankfully, the Hokage Tower is nearly complete and I've been told many of the clan compounds have made great progress, especially that of the Aburame and Akimichi."

He supposed he might as well get used to the boring stuff now so it'd be easier later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to clarify: while I know that Hoshigakure and Naruto's mission to Takigakure are Anime Filler only, I've decided to count them for the story (if for no other reason than it expands the other hidden villages a bit). However, I certainly don't plan to use much other filler for the story (if any at all) and even for those not familiar with the Anime Filler it should be mostly explained by this point what happened in them.
> 
> Thanks everyone for reading; please feel free to kudos/bookmark/comment/continue on!


	13. A Mission in Hoshi: Friendly Concern

"Neji, do another check." The sun was going down quickly into the trees as they neared the Land of Bears, the small assembled group traveling at a blistering pace in order to reduce the risk of the intel expiring or the enemy increasing their preparedness. This was only the second day of their traveling, having left Konoha at dawn the day before, and it seemed to Naruto a sign of great progress that they should reach their destination in the afternoon the following day. Of course, Neji and Ino were both looking a little taxed which was understandable given that Ino was not exactly a stamina freak and Neji did frequent Byakugan checks. The important thing, though, was that they had kept up.

"Byakugan!" The veins around the Hyuuga's eyes bulged briefly as the ability quickly sought about identifying the sources of chakra within a rather large diameter of area. It was definitely a supreme advantage having someone like Neji to prevent the risk of being ambushed. Of course, it would take some kind of supreme bad luck to run into any enemies this far out while still in the Land of Fire but if Naruto had ever learned anything it was that his luck could have wild swings of good and bad. It was best to minimize the risk. "The area's clear, Naruto."

Naruto nodded his head. Technically speaking, he and Neji were somewhat equal in this mission, with the both of them being Jounin. However, it did not take too long for him to sense that Neji was letting him call most of the shots, not that anything of major importance had come up of course. He assumed his friend was simply trying to help him get used to the idea of giving orders. Or maybe Neji simply deferred because he had been recruited for the mission, Naruto didn't really know. "Alright! I think that means we can set up camp here. We've been pushing hard but we'll need all our strength for tomorrow."

They stopped in a small clearing between a few trees, just barely enough for the four of them to fit tents in. While it was really a small detail, he knew that sleeping in a tent for the night was actually a luxury because there was a very good chance it would not be worth the risk tomorrow night or possibly the night after that. They'd need to move as much as possible, creating distance quickly if they wanted to be safe in getting away.

Ino let out an exasperated sigh of relief. "Whew, oh man, it's about time we get some well-deserved rest! My feet are killing me from the constant running."

"I found the exhilarating pace to be an excellent test of my youthful flame!"

The platinum blonde just rolled her eyes. "Oh shut it Lee, of course you'd find some kind of joy from this." Despite their bickering, Lee and Ino quickly got to work in setting up their tents, as did Neji and Naruto. Neji and Ino managed to pitch the small structures in mere moments while Lee continued to trip awkwardly in his attempts. It was kind of funny really that a guy like Lee, with the most precise and controlled Taijutsu he had seen, could be so awkward. Then again… Naruto looked to his right, seeing two shadow clones in a heated staring contest as the thing lay miserably on the ground. He was pretty sure he saw one of them reaching for a kunai.

"Hey, come on you two, how hard can it be to set up a tent?"

"Boss, it's this bastard's fault!"

The second clone glared at the first. "Oh yeah? And how's that?"

Naruto was confused. "Huh? What's his fault?"

The first clone jumped to his feet, pointing. "This idiot can't do anything right!" Apparently that was the final straw because the second clone then tackled the first clone and attempted to deliver a punch to the face that the bottom clone managed to dodge before using his legs to kick his attacker off. Both of them rose up, assuming fighting stances, each drawing a Hiraishin kunai. They stared each other down, anger visible in their eyes and an intent to kill evident.

After taking a moment to overcome his confusion, because honestly how could two shadow clones fail to set up a tent, he dispelled them.

Ino was the first to talk. "D-did that actually just happen?"

Neji had the decency to answer for him. "Yes. Yes it did." Naruto was honestly a little embarrassed even if his clones always did have a bit of a tendency to not get along. The least the bastards could do was not embarrass him on a mission like this! It usually took them way more time than that to start bickering though he supposed they could be a little bitter whenever he used them for more trivial things. All he had wanted to do was have them set up a tent so he could start his meal more quickly...

"Their passion burned brightly."

Naruto was definitely ready to get past this unfortunate episode. "We're going to need to leave early; I'm thinking before sunrise. So let's go ahead and eat so we can actually get some decent sleep."

Everyone nodded or affirmed in some way and Naruto found himself drifting once more into thought. It felt weird giving orders of any kind; normally he was not only the one taking orders but also the one who defied them in any way he wanted. He knew for sure that if somebody ordered him to wake up before dawn he would have been complaining regardless of how justified it was. As strange as it felt, he thought maybe that it would have been a bit more comforting if someone was acting that way. Regardless, he then started setting up the small tent and found himself capable of doing it at a reasonable rate; much better than the bickering clones. He supposed that some things still had to be done himself.

"So, Naruto, this is your first mission as a jounin isn't it?" Ino asked, in the midst of further preparing the makeshift campsite along the others.

"Well, first one as a confirmed jounin at least. What a first assignment too, huh?" He said, with a small chuckle though deep down he did feel an unusual sense of nervousness. First mission as a confirmed jounin, first mission of the war, first time having any real authority in leadership. It was natural to be nervous but he knew that if he were by himself then the feeling would be gone. It was the fact that Neji, Ino, and Lee would be affected by anything he did wrong that got to him. Then again, surely he had used up all his bad luck in that whole Kusa incident.

"Yosh! However, I cannot think of any better way to test my passion than by undertaking an S-ranked assignment!" Pretty much the same thing Lee had said when he talked to the guy about taking the mission. Of course he had never expected anything different from Lee; if nothing else, the guy was strong and consistent. It probably helped that Gai-sensei had been around when they met up so it probably bolstered his confidence a bit. Not that it seemed Lee ever really needed the boost; as soon as he told him about his promotion to jounin Lee had congratulated him for 'his unquestionable eternal youth' before challenging him to a spar. Lee was definitely one of the weirdest people Naruto knew but at least Bushy Brows was reliable.

Neji scoffed. "Calm yourself Lee; if everything goes right, the fighting should be kept to a minimum and only when we are at a maximum advantage."

"Of course, my eternal rival! Though you should know my eagerness shall never come before the objective!"

The Hyuuga smirked in response. "But I can certainly recall some times where your eagerness made you re-interpret the objective." Naruto couldn't help but laugh; yeah, Kakashi, Tsunade, and Jiraiya would probably all accuse him of the same thing. For as much as they'd mock him, though, Naruto knew that his results justified his actions. They certainly did not always agree with him on that point.

"Hah, you should have seen my squad. Eagerness was always the last thing on anyone's minds," Ino said, as they gathered in a circle and prepared to cook a simple meal consisting of grilled fish and some rice. They had stopped at a stream only briefly earlier in the day to catch a few to cover the meal and of course they already had brought rice. "I know I may not have the highest work ethic around, but even I had to try to drag Asuma-sensei and Shikamaru to training. They would've just sat around and played board games all day if they had it their way."

"That sounds most unfortunate! I believe your squad would have benefited notably from an injection of Gai-sensei's supremely youthful training techniques!"

Ino giggled a little bit. "Well, I think we functioned decent enough in our own way." Her eyes cast to the ground and he got the impression that she was thinking about Team Seven and Sasuke. "I like to imagine we all did, even if maybe it's not true. I guess I never really noticed anything too wrong so I just assumed it was like that for everyone."

A bit of a calm gathered over the four of them as they set about making their meals. The nature of the silence was unnerving to him, probably because it made him think about his and Sasuke's history. He still didn't understand entirely how things had gotten to the point they were now. Sure, for the longest time, it had felt like things between them could have exploded and ended the team but they had gotten past it. It had even felt like the two of them were becoming brothers. Then, after the fight with Gaara, it was clear things had changed. Instead of thinking on this subject more, Naruto opted to move past it. "So, I'm thinking we do a two-person watch. Neji and Ino can take the first shift then Lee and I can take the second. I can have shadow clones running the whole time too; if I'm just asleep they stay around and I wake up whenever they die."

Of course Lee was the first to respond. "Excellent and simple! I see no reason to argue!"

Ino, however, seemed to be thinking something else. "You know, actually, based off of everything I know about this mission, Naruto's supposed to be doing all of the heavy lifting if things work out as planned. Thanks to Neji's Byakugan, we already know that there's very little chance of an enemy being near enough to just happen upon us; besides, Neji is plenty capable of taking a solo shift while Lee and I work the other. I think it's in the best interests of the mission that you rest the entire night, Naruto."

"Huh?" Well, that hadn't been anything he was expecting. For the most part he was just ready for everyone to say yes since he had not thought of any reason otherwise. "Oh, ummm, thanks for that Ino but really one shift will be plenty of rest for me!" Naruto chuckled and added a bit of a smile for her concern over him but really Jiraiya had definitely made sure he got used to working on little sleep over their time training. Of course, it was impossible to say whether the man did it on purpose or the pervert just so happened to continually get chased out of town at three in the morning after forcing Naruto to train until midnight.

"Just thought it was worth mentioning" she said, with a smile back. He thought for a moment that this Ino, calm and collected, thinking about the mission, and being nice, seemed so out of place from the Ino he remembered from the Academy and their time as genin. She had definitely never been the nicest to him in all that time. Really though he had not gotten the chance to interact with her much at all since then so this side of her personality was a bit of a shocker. He only knew she would be good for the mission because Sakura had, on occasion, talked about her progress since the two were best friends. Of course, it would usually be something like 'Hah, that Ino-pig thinks she's so special because she can enter people's minds but she's still way behind in her medical jutsu' but that's just the way Sakura was. Though, come to think of it, when he asked her about taking the mission, she seemed kind enough then. The worst part of that was having to talk to her dad, the Yamanaka clan leader; now that had been an experience.

"_Of course my Ino-hime can handle this mission but if I find out anything happened to her and you were negligent in any way..."_

He did not want to even think about any of the terrible things Inoichi had promised should something really bad happen to Ino. If he ever had to be interrogated Naruto knew now he should request Ibiki.

"I think the current watch agreement is suitable enough. Naruto, if it's alright, I'd like to talk to you alone for a moment." Neji had a serious look on his face all of a sudden and it made Naruto a little bit nervous to wonder what it could possibly be about. He was pretty sure he hadn't screwed anything up though.

"Guess that's fine." He got up of his sitting position and followed suit when Neji jumped into a nearby treeline. To his surprise, Neji made another jump, then another, then even another one creating a decent chunk of ground between them and Lee and Ino. He began thinking about what could be going on and a few things popped up in his mind. The first of which was that he had done something very wrong that Neji did not want to call him out on in front of the others but Naruto could not think of anything that would apply. The second was that Neji had an embarrassing secret to tell but this hardly seemed the time to do it. Then, the thought crossed his mind that maybe this wasn't Neji at all but some kind of henge!

Neji was stopped on a branch looking at him now; Naruto stood one branch behind. Without a word Neji activated his Byakugan and Naruto felt his body naturally tense ever-so slightly as it went on-guard. The Hyuuga then deactivated the Doujutsu.

"It would appear that we are indeed alone."

"Look, Neji, mind telling me what's going on exactly? Did I screw something up or what?"

"I admit, this is perhaps an inopportune time. However, I thought it should be nice to have a simple chat among friends. After all, we are friends right?"

"Well duh, what kind of stupid question is that?" Naruto had no idea what exactly was going on though he got the impression from Neji that the Hyuuga was being calculated in his wording. Somehow, he knew that the conversation was not going to be a normal chat and that Neji must have had something to say. It was too unlike Neji to talk for the sake of talking and it definitely seemed like it would be out of character for a mission.

"Then why did you go on guard when I activated my Byakugan?"

"What do you..." Naruto was willing to pretend that he didn't know what the other jounin was talking about but, with the way Neji was looking at him, decided that it would be pointless. "I-I don't know." The Hyuuga smirked slightly.

"The rational answer is simple, Naruto. We are all shinobi; loyalty is not a guarantee for all of us. I could have attempted to attack you, for any number of reasons that you could never know about. A jutsu could have been used on me to make me willing to attack you or maybe to control me outright. I broke protocol by requesting group separation without stating a reason and ensured that we were alone. I activated my Doujutsu which you have already had to fight against in the past. The only reasonable thing to do is to raise your guard."

Naruto was feeling rather confused at Neji's strange behavior. "Okay, well, what's your point then?"

"It strikes me as something odd for you to do." Naruto stood in silence for a moment, unsure of how to respond, before Neji continued speaking. "I can only imagine that things have been rather stressful for you as of late. Indeed, it must seem that the entire weight of Konoha rests on your shoulders. Pressure of that sort is often the catalyst for change."

"Come on, why can't you just tell me what you're talking about? Wouldn't that be easier for both of us?"

"How much will you change, Naruto? What happens when the underdog becomes the top dog, when someone who has oriented themselves so completely on the idea of being underestimated suddenly becomes the favorite? Allow me to say it this way. If Lee has been training to defeat me, and then he does so, how could he continue to train with the sole purpose of defeating me? It is something he has already accomplished, after all."

He finally started to understand a bit of what Neji was talking about but still found it an awkward thing to discuss. Had he actually changed significantly recently? It didn't feel like it to him but how could he expect to notice something like that? Actually, now that he thought about it, it did feel like he was spending a lot more time thinking about things than he used to. There was no way that was a bad thing though, right? It really only made sense to him that he needed to really start thinking things through after he received that rushed Hokage nomination from Danzo.

"No matter how much things change, Neji, I'll always remember the way things used to be. I can't forget being underestimated and having everyone tell me I would never become a ninja, that I didn't deserve to be one, that I would never defeat the Hyuuga prodigy. There will always be the next opponent out there that I shouldn't be able to beat and it will be up to me to prove everyone wrong again." He was sure that Iwa and Kumo both had plenty of shinobi that would believe they could defeat him, and maybe they even could. That was all the reason that he would win whenever they met, no matter what.

"But many of those who said you would never prevail, who mocked your dreams, they are the same people who now support you. Doesn't that upset you at all, Naruto? These people who, if you had died on your first mission, would have proudly proclaimed that they had told everyone you were not cut out to be a ninja are now some of your biggest fans."

Yes, it did upset him a little bit, Naruto realized suddenly. Some of the store owners that had charged him a bit extra or had simply glared at him the entire time he was in their store growing up were now offering him discounts and treating him like family. Trying to treat him like Teuchi always has. The other kids had always isolated themselves from him and now kids wanted autographs. Or, like that kid the other day, said that he was their favorite shinobi and asked for advice. Looking up to him the same way Konohamaru always has. It made him feel weird and a little awkward. Of course he didn't hate them or anything but he could not deny that it made him wonder if they could simply go back to hating him if he ever messed up.

"People… people change, Neji. I expect you of all people to know that. Even if it did upset me, the only thing I can do about it is accept them as they are now and not hold anything against them for how things used to be." It actually felt easier to say than to think. Of course, saying it, it sounded perfect and forgiving and accepting. It sounded better from his lips than from his head. Was he simply putting on a performance, pretending that it didn't bother him when it really did? Was he lying to Neji? He honestly didn't know. It sounded like the full truth out of his mouth but a half truth in his mind.

"After our fight in that Chuunin Exam," Neji said, seemingly changing the subject, "I realized a lot of things. Mostly, I understood then that even with these eyes I had been blinded my whole life. When I went back to the Hyuuga Compound, I no longer felt total hatred toward the main family or toward Hinata. It did not take long, then, for the side branch to realize this. They started to speculate and rumors started that I had been subdued by the main branch. It was clear that they still respected my skills but I was no longer the prodigy that was destined to liberate them from the Caged Bird Seal."

"I'm sorry you had to go through all that. I guess… I was probably on my training trip so I wasn't around to see you dealing with any of it." Obviously he had missed a lot of things when he was gone from the village for those two-and-a-half years, but he couldn't regret taking the journey. It had been necessary, after all.

"That's not the point, Naruto. Once those expectations were gone, I felt free. Once I realized it, the next time I was training, well, it was the first time in my life I had trained without thinking about how I would fulfill my destiny. I could train for any reason I liked. At that time, then, I wondered if that was how you felt as well. Free of all expectations but your own." Neji got a distant look in his eyes, looking up toward the sky and speaking softly, "Able to find your own meaning." The look ended and Neji returned to looking him in the eyes. "Now, however, it's obvious that everyone expects a lot from you. I can't help but wonder if you are becoming similarly trapped."

After a moment, Naruto smiled brightly. "Was all this talk really just to say that you're worried about me? Hehehe, I guess I should say I'm honored but come on Neji, you should know better than that." He couldn't help but laugh a bit. To think, all of this build-up just to say that.

"As a friend, I am happy that you have finally achieved the recognition and admiration you deserve. It was clear from the moment I lost our fight that you had always been unfairly portrayed. However, you cannot trivialize my concern so easily." There was a serious look in the Hyuuga's eye that made the smile fall from Naruto's face. "Earlier, Ino made a reasonable request to ease your burden. Sure, perhaps you thought it was coddling or that she was underestimating you but the fact is that it would have made things easier for you. It would have allowed your friends to shoulder some of your duties, not because they needed to, but because they wanted to. And you denied it. Everyone has a limit, Naruto. No lone man can shoulder every responsibility."

There was a moment of silence as Naruto tried to digest what Neji had said. For some reason, Neji's last statement really made him think. Was he trying to do too much himself? Was it too much to want to bring an age of peace, to end this war and all future wars; was it too much to want to also become Hokage, to keep up with his friends, to master wind jutsu, to perfect his usage of the Hiraishin, to participate in war councils? The idea of becoming Hokage came with challenges of its own. He needed to learn politics, clan and village law, how to do team assignments, how to do the infamous paperwork; he would need to be diplomatically involved with all the other villages while making time to show face around his own. Could he do everything he wanted or would there be sacrifices he would need to make?

He wanted to believe he truly could do it all but there was the slightest voice in his mind that said there could always be even more responsibilities that popped up outside of those he already anticipated. Then, as the doubt started to creep up, a clear thought emerged in his mind. He had given his word that he would bring about peace to Nagato.

"I appreciate you looking out for me, Neji. At the end of the day, though, I've decided that I will do whatever I can to bring peace and it doesn't matter how much I need to do because I am going to do it! I already gave my word so there's no going back, and that's my nindo, my ninja way!" Naruto had a bright smile on his face as he stretched out his right hand, giving his friend a thumbs-up to assure the Hyuuga of his confidence.

"Hmph, you are truly a fool Naruto." There was a smirk on Neji's face, however, and Naruto knew there was no harshness in the words. He couldn't help but laugh, feeling like whatever issue Neji had was put to rest.

"You must not have seen a mirror lately. Kunai can cut hair too, ya know!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I could write Naruto and friends indefinitely; I hope you enjoy all the dialogue as much as I do. 
> 
> Thank you all for reading. As always, please feel free to kudos, comment, bookmark, or continue on.


	14. A Mission in Hoshi: First Contact

Naruto watched as Neji, who was in front of the group with his Byakugan active as they jumped through the trees, held up a fist. They came to a stop on a branch. After an uneventful watch, they had woken up early and quickly packed the few things they'd set-up before moving out. Since then, it had been a mostly straight shot toward the supposed location of the enemy camp. Everything had been quiet thus far so he supposed that was a good thing. Maybe, for once, things would go as planned.

"I can confirm that there are enough chakra signatures to conclude that the location must be some type of enemy base." Naruto felt relieved that Danzo's intel had been accurate. "There are... hundreds of people walking around with a few standing still along what is likely the perimeter, presumably keeping watch. I don't see any unreasonably large chakra levels, and they vary widely in terms of development." Already, Naruto was put at ease that bringing Neji had been the correct choice.

* * *

"_Hiashi-sama, thank you for seeing me on such short notice!"_

"_Of course, Naruto. Forgive my lack of formality but my daughter informed me you prefer it as such."_

"_Well Hinata was right about that! Of course, she's usually right about things in my experience."_

"_I suppose she is of good intelligence. That aspect has never been the subject of dispute, unlike some of her other attributes. Alas, I have shifted the conversation. You sought me out; please, speak as you like after the tea is served."_

_The two of them sat still on the ground around a low table for several minutes, before the tea was finally brought. Naruto did not want to be impatient given that he had asked for Hiashi with no notice, but he could not help but be uncomfortable merely sitting and doing nothing else._

"_Ah, I hope you enjoy this brew. It's not made using potent leaves but I find it has a calming, focusing effect." The two of them sipped from the glasses. "Thank you for your patience. You may speak."_

"_Well, you see..." Naruto struggled briefly to find a decent way to phrase his request, and somehow the stone stillness of the Hyuuga clan-head made it worse. "I guess it's just that..." he did not know why it was difficult, but chalked it up to the fact that it would be his first time really leading a mission with his friends lives in danger. Or maybe it was asking without describing the mission? "I'm leading a team on a dangerous S-ranked mission, and I was hoping I could get your approval for a Hyuuga. Specifically, I wanted Neji. I think his Byakugan would really help us out there!"_

_Perhaps he had finished a bit too confident. But Hiashi seemed to ponder his words._

"_Very well."_

_Naruto sat, shocked at how easy it was._

"_If I may ask," Hiashi continued, "why not my daughter?"_

_Thankfully, Naruto already had his reasoning worked out for that; even he knew that was a dangerous question. "I figured that I should restrict the number of clan-heads I take with me. Also, given that there's a decent chance at combat far away from Konoha, I thought Neji would be a more... agreeable choice?" He was pretty much running with the reasons Tsunade had given._

_Hiashi merely nodded his head. "Neji shall be an exemplary choice, of that I am sure. I have little doubt he shall look forward to the opportunity. If you should like, I will have him summoned while we enjoy this fine tea."_

_"Ummm, yeah, that'd be great."_

* * *

Being able to get accurate intel, even from such a long distance away, while having an incredibly low chance of ever getting ambushed, was definitely an awesome ability. From even further away, Neji had been able to identify that there was at least something in the location. Still, he knew he couldn't get comfortable just because of Neji's special eyes. The thought made him clench his fist and look toward the ground. If he had found a way to defeat the Byakugan, even if it was just a one-time method, then it was possible someone else could do it as well. "Alright; in that case..."

"Wait," Neji interrupted. "Something about this strikes me as peculiar"

Ino spoke up. "What is it, Neji?"

"Well," the Hyuuga continued, "think about it. Don't you find it odd that I do not see any patrols? The report specifically mentioned that we should expect the Kumo-nin to be highly ready for confrontation. And yet, they are merely standing around with watchmen. No patrols anywhere in the surrounding forest."

"Yes, that is quite odd." Lee said, bushy-brows furrowed in concentration. "It struck me as odd, also, when you mentioned the chakra levels of the opponents. While it is your greatest weakness to judge an enemy's strength by their chakra," Neji sighed at Lee's kind-of insult, "I did expect higher."

Neji nodded his head, as did Naruto and Ino. That also made sense. Naruto was already starting to get a little worried about the mission; oh sure, nothing had really gone wrong yet, but things were certainly starting down an unexpected path. "So, what do you think this all means Neji? You don't just think that maybe Kumo underestimated Hoshi a little bit?" Even if Hoshi was a small village, it was still a ninja village and had plenty of strong fighters. He could attest to that much from his brief time there.

"I find that somewhat unlikely. Imagine, for a moment, that you were a Kumo Commanding Officer. You were expecting a group from Konoha, and know the basics about all the clans due to previous fighting experiences. What, exactly, would you expect that group to consist of?"

Naruto thought for a second. It was a little difficult since he had picked this team already but he just needed to imagine another viewpoint. "Well, obviously a Hyuuga. I mean honestly those eyes of yours are so useful they should be standard issue on S-ranks." Naruto couldn't help but smirk a little bit at the smug smile that found its way onto Neji's face. Seemed like those eyes were still a point of pride for the Hyuuga. He thought some more. "Hmm... probably a Yamanaka. For information gathering so we know where the most important targets in the base are."

Ino's eyes widened. "Of course! They don't have any patrols because they don't want anyone to get captured. They must not have a way to counteract the Byakugan so want to stay together so we can't get the drop on any patrols and get information to help the mission."

Naruto started to feel a bit worried about the mission. "So, you're saying they're prepared for us?" Maybe he had been a bit too predictable in picking his team. Of course it made a lot of sense to have Neji and Ino, but then again, it seemed like it made so much sense that Kumo had predicted it.

Neji smirked. "Not at all, Naruto. Logically, another obvious choice would have been the Inuzuka for their tracking abilities. They do not use chakra and would allow a Byakugan user to conserve theirs. Or even an Aburame, whose bugs could perform a similar purpose. But we can be certain they are not ready for the 'Leaf's Green Beast,' correct, Lee?

The spandex-clad ninja extended a fist. "Yosh! No enemy can prepare properly for I, the Beautiful Green Beast of the Leaf! And certainly no one is capable of predicting a force of this caliber. This was a most excellent team selection, Naruto!"

Naruto couldn't help but smile at Bushy-Brow's compliment. A sense of relief went through him as he let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding.

Neji continued. "Perhaps it's true that they predicted the Byakugan. And they predicted a Yamanaka. But they could not have predicted my Byakugan, or Ino's proficiency. Have confidence in your teammates, Naruto. We will succeed in this mission, regardless of odds."

He had plenty of confidence in his teammates. Naruto knew first-hand what an incredible opponent Neji was, and he had seen Lee's incredible fight against Gaara. And that had been years ago! It was safe to say the two of them had only gotten much stronger and would have even more tricks up their sleeves now than ever before. He didn't really have much of an idea about Ino's skill level but, since Sakura seemed to imply Ino had learned quite a lot, he was going to trust her completely just like he would Sakura. It was just a little hard not to worry since they were his friends.

Naruto reached into the pouch on his hip, grabbing one of his Hiraishin kunai and throwing it into the ground. Briefly, he felt for chakra signals and immediately identified four of them. The one in the ground plus one carried by each of his teammates.

"I haven't mastered this yet, but from this distance I should be able to use Hiraishin to get us back here if necessary." All of the team nodded their heads. "The plan should still work. Even if they're a little prepared, the idea is to get it over with so quickly that they won't even know what hit them. Call it a..." he smirked, looking at each of his teammates, "lightning strike."

They proceeded toward the base, Neji keeping his Byakugan active in order to ensure they remained undetected. It was not long until they were in the groups ideal range, about two lines of trees away from the base's location, careful to stay hidden among the branches. The original plan had called for a precision strike on supplies stored within the base; things like food, medicine, and ninja tools. That plan, however, was not going to work without capturing an enemy shinobi first so had to be modified a little bit.

Overall, the plan was the same. The team would stay back while Naruto used Hiraishin and explosive tags to destroy the enemy base. If things went badly, they could start fighting whenever Neji deemed it necessary. If things went perfectly, then their job would be to intercept any fleeing shinobi and capture them so they could get information. The only real difference is that Naruto was going to need to place explosive tags on just about everything to make sure the mission was effective. That was going to take more time than just a few buildings but should still be safe.

Naruto took a deep breath, looking through the branches and leaves to see a bit of the enemy base. He held a Hiraishin kunai in his right hand, taking a few moments to prepare since as soon as he started there would be no real going back. For this task he was not going to use shadow clones; after all, there was a decent chance he may flash to a location that a shadow clone already had. Which meant someone may have targeted the shadow clone and he'd simply jump right into an enemy attack. It would also be difficult to sort through all the memories and figure out which clones had been successful in which location, and he did not need to get distracted by that headache.

Standing up, he felt the eyes of his teammates on him. A smile formed on his face as he thought about the simple fact that they were trusting him to handle this part of the mission. If they had doubts, they didn't voice them. Maybe it would have been better if they did, but he couldn't help but be a little grateful that there hadn't been any questions from them about his ability to do this. They had seen him use Hiraishin once but already believed he mastered it to the point of infiltrating a base of several hundred enemy-nin and being able to get them all out of there without a problem.

He would not let that trust down. Naruto threw the kunai into the air before quickly performing a series of hand signs "Multi Shadow Kunai Jutsu!" The singular kunai turned immediately into slightly over a hundred and he wasted no time before transitioning into more hand signs. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" A gust of wind left his palms, in a wide arc to catch all the kunai and help to spread them through most of the enemy camp. He closed his eyes as he focused on feeling all the energy signatures, the sudden creation of so many enough to cause a dull thud in his head that faded away after a moment. Much better than when he had passed out the first time.

Flashing to a random kunai that was somewhere around the middle, Naruto cursed his luck once again. Time seemed to stop as he was staring eye-to-eye with an enemy shinobi; glancing up at the headband, he was somewhat surprised to see the symbol for Shimogakure instead of Kumo. He was less surprised when the opponent opened his mouth.

"Yellow Flash!" The enemy-nin jumped away as he yelled, and Naruto knew it would be silly to give chase. He reached into a pouch on his left hip and pulled out an explosive tag, quickly placing it onto a tent. "Water Style: Water..." not really caring about whatever jutsu was about to come his way, Naruto flashed to the next kunai.

On instinct, he ducked as soon as he appeared, body processing the threat of an enemy slashing at him with a kunai far faster than his mind. Naruto kicked upward, launching the enemy backwards as he once again quickly placed an explosive tag. Several shinobi were running towards him at this point and so he quickly flashed away. By now, he was hearing screams of Yellow Flash from pretty much everywhere and he doubted any of his kunai were safe. The best he could do for his safety was to try to distance himself as much as possible from the prior kunai with each flash, in hopes that enemy shinobi would be less prepared further away.

The next kunai was safer, allowing him to hurriedly place an explosive tag and move to another kunai all the way on the other side of the camp. He was met there by three shinobi, two from Kumo and one from Shimo. Immediately they were attacking, forcing Naruto to jump backwards to avoid the strikes. As he was in the air, he watched and was amazed to see the three of them focusing their attention on the kunai on the ground and not him. Of course, it did make some sense that shinobi would concentrate on the kunai in order to be ready for the Hiraishin, but it seemed ridiculous to do it when he was right there!

"Hey, don't you think you can ignore me!" He held his arms outstretched forward. "Wind style: Great Breakthrough!" A massive gust of wind left his hands, quickly reaching the unprepared enemies, riddling their bodies with cuts as the strength of the attack lifts them off their feet and throws them backwards. Naruto smiles as he thinks of all the progress he's made with the move in a short period of time but quickly refocuses on the mission. His current strategy was clearly what the Kumo/Shimo shinobi expected from him.

They must not have known of his other nickname. From before the time he became the Second Yellow Flash. He was Naruto Uzumaki, The Leaf's Number One Hyperactive Knucklehead Ninja.

He created five shadow clones, before he grabbed another kunai in his right hand as his left grabbed an explosive tag. The clones quickly disappeared, using Hiraishin to appear and disappear all over the camp as fast as possible. A repeat of the impromptu Shadow Clone Rush technique he had debuted in the fight against Nagato. Naruto, meanwhile, simply started running, placing tags with his left hand as quickly as he could while he listened to the commotion all around him. There was clearly some panic from the enemies which definitely worked to his advantage.

"Hey! There he is!" Naruto knew he was being seen as he did this, but he was moving fast enough amid all the confusion that he had hoped nobody would react fast enough. Not wanting to waste any time, he threw the kunai in his hand quickly forward, waiting for it to cut through a tent before using Hiraishin to appear on the other side, on the ground as the kunai continued onward before getting falling into the dirt ahead. With those enemies dodged, he continued in his mission as the sounds of screaming shinobi emerged from all around him.

"Everyone! Plan Yellow!" He heard this phrase once, and then he started to hear it being yelled all around him, until variations of it were ringing out from all over. He wondered what exactly it meant but figured he needed to keep his focus on the mission. Three of his clones were still alive and causing havoc so he probably was not in too much danger himself so long as he kept his guard up. In that moment, in the heat of a dangerous mission surrounded by enemies who would want nothing more than the chance to kill him, his guard was definitely at its highest.

It actually felt kind of awesome.

After about another minute, he noticed that there were fewer and fewer enemy shinobi around. It seemed that they were moving away from the base, as far as he could that was theoretically a good thing, it definitely started to make him feel nervous that things were either going wrong or about to go wrong. At this point, he was starting to accept that his missions would never go as planned. It might have been best to simply continue onward, but there was some chance that his teammates had been discovered and that him staying there only helped the enemy's plans. Thinking on what to do, he quickly made a decision.

"Naruto!" Neji's voice immediately called out the moment Naruto appeared. Looking around, Naruto saw shinobi surrounding them in the trees, hands held in front either holding kunai or ready to begin making hand signals. "We were unable to avoid all the shinobi, and when we were discovered, they began to converge on us." Neji's Byakugan was active as Neji, Ino, and Lee all stood still in their fighting stances, in a staredown with the enemy combatants.

"Alright. Think we should retreat? I placed a lot of tags but I'd bet a few were disabled and a few corners of the camp might be untouched."

The Hyuuga contemplated for a moment, likely taking another look at their situation with the Byakugan. "That would probably be for the best." Naruto nodded, wondering why exactly all the enemy shinobi were just standing around and not attacking them. If he had to guess, it was because they were waiting on a stronger shinobi to show up, probably due to orders. That's what the Iwa Bingo Book said to do, right, so why would Kumo be any different?

With fingers held in front of his face, Naruto detonated the explosive tags set throughout the enemy camp with a smile. The sound of the explosions filled the air as the Kumo and Shimo shinobi temporarily averted their eyes, looking back toward the base. Naruto knew it would not be fully destroyed since he didn't get to place as many tags as would have liked but it still should have been a pretty good show. He wrapped his arms around the entire team, ready to make the getaway.

"Alright, fair warning, it can be pretty rough the first time!" Smiling despite the situation, he quickly searched for the chakra signal of the kunai he had placed earlier. He didn't have to sort through the shadow kunai since they were all destroyed in the base explosion, along with his remaining shadow clones - he was sure he'd hear some complaints about that sometime- so finding their escape route should have been easy as could be. He focused and found... nothing. There was no kunai further away, in any safe distance. How had that happened? He knew for a fact that he had placed one down earlier.

Ino's voice brought his focus back to his team. "I think we're prepared; can we go now? Before we get attacked by hundreds of shinobi?"

"I... I can't find the kunai I placed earlier... I know where it should be, and I can feel the kunai I gave all of you, but there aren't any other ones. There's no way that should be happening; I know what I'm doing!" He kept searching, beginning to feel as if he was letting his team down by being unable to escape. If he could not find that kunai, then that meant this mission could turn into an all-out battle where they were outnumbered by the hundreds against trained enemy shinobi.

"I see." Neji said, speaking slowly. "Currently, approximately three-hundred meters in every direction, there are a total of four individuals sitting down with their hands upon the ground. I did not make note of them until now but it is possible they are somehow disrupting the jutsu."

"That's enough talk! Let 'em have it!"

As the Kumo and Shimo shinobi's arms extended forward, the Konoha-nin immediately realized that it was an attack of throwing weapons. They immediately huddled in closer around Neji, down on one knee in a triangle around the Hyuuga.

"Rotation!" Neji spun quickly, using the technique to deflect the projectiles. For his part, Naruto was somewhat glad to be protected by the jutsu rather than trying to fight through it again.

"Neji, how long can you keep this up?"

"As long as necessary!"

Naruto took a moment to think. Right now, they were under attack and relying on Neji to protect them. Things needed to change quickly but he also needed to decide on some clear plan of action first. Between himself, Neji, Ino, and Lee, they had a talented team but who knew exactly how strong his opponents would be and who knew exactly what they had planned. It might be worth it to rush toward those four mysterious shinobi, but then what if it wasn't? Maybe that was part of their plan since they would anticipate a Byakugan user.

And that's when something clicked to him. Of course somebody had to know the enemy's plans: the enemy!

"Ino, if we can capture an enemy shinobi, do you think you could get some information from them. Something about Plan Yellow, or who those four people Neji mentioned are, or their attack strategy? Any of that."

The Yamanaka's eyes went wide for a second, before a thoughtful expression took over her face. "I should be able to. But I would need protection while I got the intel and I don't know how long it would take. That always depends on the individual. Best case scenario would only be a minute for one of those things."

It seemed like Ino was going to definitely be the right choice, even after their initial plan had fallen apart.

* * *

"_Hey, Ino, you got a sec?"_

_Naruto had walked into the Yamanaka flower shop, easily finding the girl he was searching for working dutifully behind the counter just as Inoichi told him he would. Although, he would prefer forgetting the rest of what Inoichi said. Let it never be said that the Yamanaka clan-head was not caring and protective of his baby girl._

'_Sure, Naruto. What is it? Trying to buy Forehead a lovely bouquet? You know, you really should give up on her. She's so hung up on Sasuke..."_

"_No, no, nothing like that! Wait, you mean you aren't?"_

"_Of course not!"_

"_Right. Well anyway, I was just here to.."_

"_Did Sai send you? That little handsome freak could have at least come here himself."_

"_No, that's not it either. Sheesh, Ino, I just wanted..."_

"_Some flowers for Hinata?"_

"_Huh? Why would..."_

"_Nevermind." Ino rolled her eyes, as Naruto stood there wondering what they were even talking about. It was definitely not what he had intended to talk about when he got there._

"_Listen, I'm putting together a team for an S-Rank mission that's not supposed to have fighting but could easily go south in a second, and I'm sure Sakura's told you how our missions tend to work out."_

"_Umm, yeah." There was a surprised look on her face, probably from the shift in topic. "Forehead told me about a few of your crazy missions. So..."_

"_I want you to be our final member. Neji and Lee already agreed, and I already got your dad's permission too. So, how about it?"_

"_Well honestly, I'm just really surprised. You know, it's not like we ever really talked much, and I definitely wasn't... nice, back in school. Why not Forehead, anyway?"_

"_Both of you know medical jutsu, but Taijutsu is pretty much covered on this team between Neji and Lee. The information we have on the mission objective is pretty bare so I'm hoping you can use some clan jutsu to get more."_

"_I... need some time to think on it. Can you come back here tomorrow?"_

"_I know we don't talk much or anything, but I remember your fight back in the Chunin Exam qualifier. I know you're clever in battle and I know from what Sakura has told me that you're great with your clan jutsu and medical jutsu. There are a lot of people relying on me to do the best I can for this village, and right now I think that means having you on this mission with me, Lee, and Neji. So, what do ya say?"_

_Ino smiled brightly. "Thanks, Naruto. I'm going to accept this mission, and I'm going to show you exactly how good I've gotten."_

_Naruto smiled back. "Looking forward to it. I'll do the same, believe it!"_

* * *

"Alright; yeah, let's do that then. Bushy-Brows, I need you to try to lay-low and play defense while I capture someone. Keep those fists of yours ready but try to keep them as a nasty surprise for anyone who tries to get close. Your crazy skills might be the biggest surprise these guys will see all day."

"Yosh! I understand. Though my body aches to immediately join the fray, you are my superior on this mission and I shall follow your direction as I would Guy-Sensei!"

"Neji," Naruto continued, "see if you can exploit any openings and get this team moving around; I can flash in to you at any time."

"R-right." The stutter surprised Naruto, and he looked at Neji's face, obscured by the speed of his rotating, and after a second, he noticed that the jounin was already sweating. That seemed odd; surely he had not been using the Rotation enough to already wear himself out? Then again, constant Byakugan use could have taken a toll as well but it seemed that someone as careful and dedicated as Neji would have been sure to train enough that doing only this much was easy.

Not thinking on that any longer for now, he resolved to put his plan of action into effect.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Crouching on every side of Neji were four shadow clones, each holding their hands in front of them.

"Alright, it's our time to shine!" One of the clones yelled. Naruto could only smile.

"Neji, stop!"

As the rotation ended, Naruto's eyes caught sight of dozens of kunai heading right toward him. Immediately he wondered why there were no jutsu flying their way but he didn't have any time to think more about it.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" The four Narutos yelled in unison, signaling the start of their counter-attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you for reading. Please feel free to kudos, comment, and/or bookmark!


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